Anders Hejdenberg, the lead designer of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, released a trailer for his upcoming iPhone game today.
Dark Nebula is described as a "skill-based action game" which appears to be a much enhanced take on the ball-rolling games we've already seen for the iPhone. Anders writes:
“The iPhone has always intrigued me as a gaming platform, both in terms of how you can interact with it as well as what it is capable of technically. So I felt quite compelled to try it out and see what we could do with it. It was a lot of fun to come up with a new game concept with a control mechanic that feels great on the device.”
Like many of you, we thought we were pretty much over tilt/ball rollers for the iPhone, but the gameplay video definitely got us interested:
The game will be released as a series of episodes with the first being 10 levels for $0.99. The first episode is expected in September.
Pixel Mine's Underworlds [99¢ / Free] is a hack and slash RPG that I really found myself enjoying back in April when I originally reviewed it. Since then the game has seen a few updates which have added things like music, online leaderboards, and other tweaks but none have been anywhere near as substantial as the impending 1.2 release.
According to Bill Money of Pixel Mine, Underworlds content updates are going to "chapter system" that will work very similar to D&D modules which are self-contained adventures that use your existing character usually with minimal relation to other modules short of a story hook to get your character to the beginning of the next one. The second chapter of Underworlds will have more than twice the content of the first chapter and the level cap is getting raised to 50.
The new town of Termon will act as a hub for your adventures and will feature a magical fountain for restoring health versus McTavish's caravan in the first chapter that left you chugging potions to heal yourself in town. The quests found in Termon and the surrounding area will have multiple solutions to allow players to choose their own path, and through the main quest you will come across various side quests to create a much less linear experience.
Chapter 2 features five different maps, compared to the single map found in Chapter 1. Some of these maps are dungeons which are repeatable. Players can return to them as many times as they want to fight harder monsters with new treasures. In these different maps you will come across over 20 new monster types and spell casting NPC's.
Two new in-game movies have been added along with a pair of new feats, all unlocked through questing. Giant Strength increases your character's size and strength for 10 seconds and Bullseye increases your dexterity for a short period of time so every hit you do is a critical hit. Since a hack and slash is nothing without piles of loot and treasure, Pixel Mine has also added thousands of new armor and weapon combinations.
The Underworlds 99¢ sale will persist at least until the update is submitted, so if you've been waiting to pick this one up, now is your chance. If nothing else, now is a good time to try the lite version. For more screenshots and information on Underworlds Chapter 2, check out the thread posted in our forums.
The iPhone is quickly becoming the premiere device to own if mowing down swaths of zombies is what you like doing in your spare time. Alive 4 Ever [App Store] joins the ranks of countless survival shooters and other games that revolve around slaying the undead, only with considerably more blood and gore than we've seen in other similar games.
Alive 4 Ever begins with the standard zombie epidemic plot, with the characters you're able to select being the few people who somehow are showing no symptoms of the infection. Each of these four playable characters have slightly different starting weaponry and statistics, but thanks to a RPG-like experience system and extensive selection of weapons to purchase, it doesn't really matter who you pick. With each level you complete, you will be awarded some experience and money. Gain enough experience to level up and you get ability points to spend to increase your character statistics such as adding to your total hit points or increasing your critical hit chance.
The controls work exactly like all the other top-down shooters with two virtual joysticks, one that controls your movement and one that controls your aiming and firing. Tapping your gun on the top right corner of the screen changes weapons, buttons on the left display your objectives and pause the game. Between the two virtual joysticks is a reload button which also serves as a progress bar for the time left before you can fire again when you do reload. When you're near an object you can interact with, such as picking up ammo, an additional button appears.
Of the 30 levels included in the game, objectives are varied between a limited set of possibilities and every level is set within a large arena setting. Some levels have goals that simply involve killing X number of zombies or surviving for Y seconds. Other levels have you rescuing survivors or picking up a brief cases full of vaccines. On levels that you need to rescue survivors or pick up vaccines, an arrow guides you to where they are, then back to the safe zone where they need to be dropped off. To make things harder, when rescuing a survivor, you need to guard them from zombies as they slowly follow you to the safe zone. Meanwhile, when you are carrying the briefcase of vaccines, you can only use your pistol instead of your much more powerful two-handed weapon.
Also included are a few different boss levels that mix things up a bit by pitting you against a massive zombie or other creature that has a few special attacks it can use against you. Along with the standard objectives, each level also has a challenge objective. For example, the goal of the first stage is to kill 60 zombies, the secondary challenge asks you to do it in under 3 minutes. Going back and completing all the challenges should provide a decent amount of replay value, especially since as you progress in the game just beating the main objective alone can be difficult enough.
The graphics and sound in Alive 4 Ever greatly add to the overall experience of the game. The environments are highly detailed as are the zombies and the blood splatters that appear every time you shoot one of them. The musical score and sound effects also fit perfectly with the mood of the game.
My favorite thing about Alive 4 Ever is that it really feels like a complete game. So often on the App Store and especially in the 99¢ market, games are released entirely unfinished with missing features promised via updates. Yeah, it would be nice if there were some more variety to the missions, but overall the game feels very solid and most importantly like a finished product. The RPG elements are well done, there are tons of weapons to buy, and there's even coop bluetooth multiplayer which according to early reports works great.
Alive 4 Ever has a load of similarities with Left 4 Dead available for the PC and Xbox 360. There are fat zombies that explode and another zombie that is virtually identical to L4D's Smoker zombie that ropes you in with its tongue. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and if you're going to pick something to imitate, the game widely regarded as 2008's game of the year seems like good source material to me.
If you've enjoyed survival shooters like Minigore or iDracula, Alive 4 Ever should also suit your fancy. At the promotional launch price of 99¢, the game provides a substantial value over the competition given the depth of the included RPG elements, multiple levels and multiplayer capability.
Earlier this month we profiledMad Monkey Studios, a mobile developer that indicated they were beginning the development of iPhone games, but only those that would take specific advantage of the advanced capabilities of Apple's new iPhone 3GS hardware.
A few weeks later, the studio posted a video that showed a 3D shader-driven visual technique. The technique is somewhat reminiscent of the cartoon stylings in the '80s a-ha video 'Take On Me.'
Early this morning, a simple game based on the demo, Sktech Hop [link], was released in the App Store and, as promised, is only compatible with the iPhone 3GS.
Sketch Hop is a simple and free "2.5D" side-scrolling jump-the-obstacles platform game that challenges the player to take a bouncing ball as far down a scrolling row of logs as possible, without falling into the gaps. It's a tap to the screen to jump (the longer you hold, the higher / farther you'll jump), and that's pretty much as complicated as it gets. As a game, it really just stands out more as an example of 3GS-specific game making from a studio that, when it comes to the iPhone platform, is dedicated solely to Apple's flagship device.
See a reader's video (which lacks audio) of the game in play.
It's a simple free download for 3GS users, but non-3GS users aren't really missing out on much... yet.
CH Games, creators of Dungeon & Hero [App Store] just released a trailer of their upcoming RPG which is being published by Chillingo. According to their site, you will play as Litta, a young boy whose dream is to see the outside world. After embarking on an adventure that will change Litta's life, you eventually guide the continent to peace-- It sounds like a pretty standard premise for an RPG.
These screenshots appear to be from the Windows Mobile or Symbian version of the game:
In the game there are four different weapons to choose from along with an "intense skill system" that should allow a hefty amount of character customization. 22 unique towns along with 150 different battlefields are prepared for your conquering, and to get from place to place a little faster, Seed will also have you captaining a ship and piloting an air balloon.
Also in game is a day and night cycle along with quests that can only be completed at certain times of the day. These day and night cycles apparently changes combat as well. Seed also has a elemental component to combat where Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire can be leveraged to affect the outcome of your battles. Equipping different armor and weapons will change the appearance of your character and throughout the world of Seed you will come across all kinds of different items of different rarity that also can be customized with "sockets, compounding, and refining."
That's all we know right now, as Chillingo provides us more information on what could be yet another awesome RPG for the iPhone we will be sure to post it.
While EA may have a complete monopoly on NFL games on home consoles, the App Store is wide open for competition between industry giants Gameloft and EA who both have rights to the complete NFL franchise on the iPhone. In what quite obviously is a warning shot across the bow of the U.S.S. Madden battleship, Gameloft sent us these screenshots this afternoon complete with some details on what is coming in the next NFL 2010 [App Store] update that should be live in the next one or two weeks.
The official NFL RSS feed has been integrated in to the main menu, it's also aware of what you set as your favorite team in the options and will show you news about that team along with general NFL headlines. While I don't see too many people launching NFL 2010 to get their football news for the day, it's nice to see games doing more with the internet connectivity of the iPhone than online scoreboards.
Player head shots have been added, along with improvements to both the offensive and defensive in-game AI, along with some difficulty balances adjusting how the game handles interceptions, passes, coverage, and other things like that. There will also be a new playbook with additional basic plays.
The NFL players database has also been updated to add Michael Vick to the Eagles and Bret Favre to the Vikings. This update is a nice turn for Gameloft who historically has not released content updates for their games and instead just focus on updates to improve performance, compatibility, or provide bug fixes. Gameloft seems serious about holding the line on NFL 2010 with the impending release of Madden 10.
This update alone would be substantial enough, but there's also a second update in the works with a release date that has yet to be announced which will add:
Online, Bluetooth and WiFi Multiplayer modes.
The ability to upload your best replays to YouTube.
A special Zombies vs Skeletons match.
Gameloft LIVE! compatibility.
While it remains to be seen how this battle between the App Store titans of the will resolve, these updates may make a decision to hold off buying until Madden 10 more difficult to stand by.
Gamevil is putting the final touches on their action fighting game Hybrid: Eternal Whisper which is scheduled to be submitted to Apple as early as next week.
We first heard about this title coming to iPhone back in June, and Gamevil has since been working hard to adapt it to the iPhone and to the U.S. market. The game is a hybrid of action, adventure and RPG genres and one that we haven't quite seen before. Hybrid is an action fighting game at its core with an extensive skills upgrade system and RPG elements. These levels are tied together with an extensive story line.
You play the role of Grey a young kid with a mysterious history who is looking to defend his land and avenge his brother. The story walks you through your training which teaches you how to fight. The D-Pad offers movement and an action button for attacks. Grey also has two different sword grips: standard and reverse. The two grips are more effective for different scenarios and can be combined together to form longer attacks. But this is just the beginning.
Additional special attacks and skills are introduced over time and there appear to be a massive number of possibilities. As you can see from the Skills page shown later in the video, I've only unlocked a few of the dozens of possibilities. In the video, you can see the Salamander magical attack which is invoked by a diagonal swipe of the screen.
As mentioned, the game is a series of fights strung together with a story. Surviving the fight is, of course, the ultimate goal, but you also get graded on your style and performance with each fight. As you level up and pick up items from enemies, you can upgrade your personal stats and equip stronger weapons and defensive items. The game is punctuated with boss fights and as the foes get harder, you will have to master your attacks to be able to prevail.
Like Zenonia, it appears Hybrid will offer a massive amount of gameplay time. We'll give some full impressions after we have some more practice at the game and get much deeper into it. Hybrid is scheduled to be submitted to Apple as early as next week.
Fire up the afterburners and soar into space to battle an onslaught of asteroids spawned from menacing portals. Use your cunning skills to dodge and destroy asteroids and deadly mines that track your every movement. Protect mankind from a threat that could be more then just a cosmic eruption!
That just about sums up Asteroid BBQ [App Store], which was released by Bad Doxie Games in late June, but managed to slip through the cracks here at Touch Arcade.
Asteroid BBQ, an enjoyable game with a silly name, brings a fairly unique take on the age-old Asteroids formula to the iPhone. There's your ship and there are asteroids -- true -- but, in a notable twist, glowing portals fade in and out of the playfield, as the author describes, and issue forth asteroids as well as homing mines. Destroying the latter occasionally releases power-ups that can be gathered for multi-shots, faster lasers, etc. The portals have a tendency to appear directly under your ship, which can lead to unfortunate results when they start spewing asteroids, if you're not quick on the thrusters....
The game offers the option of either tilt or touch directional controls, the latter bringing up a semi-translucent control wheel wherever a touch takes place. Lasers are on autofire, and thrust is controlled via touch. Both control methods are responsive and work well.
Asteroid BBQ is a great looking game that delivers solid action, with a pace that starts out slow, but quickly turns downright frantic. And right now there's no excuse to pass this one by as, for a limited time in celebration of an update just submitted to the App Store, Asteroid BBQ is a free download [link].
The update, which will appear shortly, includes:
Larger playing area (twice as big!)
Enemy ships that track your every movement
Green asteroids that evade your gun fire
Shockwave attack that wipes out all enemies on screen
Achievements
Online leaderboards
Upgraded graphics including new ship and lighting effects
In the outside chance that you don't find yourself mashing the check for updates button in iTunes as often as you check your email, here are a few game updates that have added some cool new features and fixes that have come out in the past few days. Videos may not reflect the most recent versions of the games.
Touch KO, $4.99 - Along with most of the first impressions on our forums, we also thought the difficulty level included in the initial release was far too easy in our review. Touch KO 1.1 brings some much needed bug fixes, the ability to skip through the slow motion replays, makes combos more powerful, but most importantly added a hard mode with new AI that is much more difficult.
Face Fighter, $1.99 - A silly fighting game that allows you to use your camera or photo library to customize opponents with the faces of your friends, enemies, pets, and loved ones. Face Fighter 2.0 adds Bluetooth multiplayer, so now instead of beating your friends up you can beat on each other.
Baseball Slugger, 99¢ - Com2uS added 2.2.1 compatibility for everyone still stuck in the pre-3.0 dark ages, the ability to brag on Twitter from within the game, as well as a global and national ranking system. Also, if you've been regretting choosing "HelloKitty15" as your Baseball Slugger user name, you will also be able to change that in this latest version of the game.
Harbor Master, 99¢ - Episode 5: Monster Cove brings yet another new map, this time with sea monsters that capture ships and take over docks. Tapping the monsters when they appear sends them back to the deep. Also, something to look out for in the next update is competitive Bluetooth multiplayer.
GI Joyride, 99¢ - Trapdoor's tilt racer that I've spent more time than I'd care to admit playing added all kinds unlockables, new vehicles, paint jobs, an experience point systems, and Facebook leaderboards. Somehow the ability to drive around a van with an awesome paint job instead of the standard tank has me playing this game again.
The iPhone is about to pick up another popular franchise. Q Entertainment producer (and former EGM Editor-in-Chief) James Mielke has revealed that Lumines will soon be available on the device as part of a major push beginning in mid-to-late September.
Not much is known about the new title, but it seems that it will be picking up some new content. Mielke confirmed that the iPhone version of the game will include brand new skins and music, and that its release should roughly coincide with Q's planned marketing push.
Originally released to North America in 2005 for the PlayStation Portable, Lumines is a block dropping game with a twist. 2x2 blocks fall from the top of the screen which can then be rotated and dropped on the existing stack of blocks. A line moves across the screen in time with the music clearing any matches with each pass.
As you play through the game, different "skins" are unlocked that change the tile set of the blocks, the background image, and the music. With each skin, the line moving across the screen also changes with the music ramping up the difficulty in the process. While it's unclear how much will make it to the iPhone version, the original Lumines featured four game modes, three single player variants and a multiplayer mode that could be played against another player or an AI opponent.
Here is a gameplay video of someone way better than I am playing the Xbox Live version of the game:
We will post more as information becomes available.
From the creators of Puzzle Prism, Mr.AahH!! [App Store] is yet another game for the iPhone that is so simple it can be described in a single sentence, yet so much fun that it can keep you playing for hours. You swing on a rope from platform to platform touching the screen to let go and tilting to refine your fall. That's all there is to it.
Who is Mr.AahH!!!? Where is he going? Who is he running from? Where is he getting this endless supply of rope? None of these questions have answers, and it doesn't matter because the simple gameplay slowly begins to ramp up with different sized platforms, wind, and even modifications to the gravity that keep you playing even longer. Just when you start landing in the center of every platform for extra points, the game throws you a curve ball and you will need to adjust to still landing on the platforms with a strong headwind and maybe even low gravity.
The simple art style of the game is wrapped in energetic chiptune music along with different graphical and sound effects depending on how close to the center of the platform you land. After you miss a platform three times it's game over and your score is submitted to an online leaderboard. It's at this point that you realized that you barely cracked the top 500 and you could totally do better than that if you just play one more time...
Here is a video by the developer that shows all the features of the game:
In my opinion, Mr.AahH!! ranks right up there with the simple classics of the App Store like Doodle Jump, Flight Control, etc. The deliciously simple gameplay has kept me coming back for more, but you don't have to take my word for it, there's a lite available that will let you swing through a small series of platforms. If nothing else, give Mr.AahH!! Lite [App Store] a try.
The Iconfactory was launched back in 1996 as a repository for icon packs as well as software for creating and using icons. Since then, they've been responsible for the creation of two great iPhone apps, Frenzic [$2.99], a fast-paced puzzle game and Twitteriffic [$3.99 / Free], one of the original premium Twitter clients available on the App Store.
Their latest game, Ramp Champ [App Store] takes the arcade game of skee ball, shrinks it down to the iPhone screen, and applies the same thick layer of highly stylized graphical work seen in all the other Iconfactory products. Included in the initial release of Ramp Champ are four different virtual skee ball machines. Clown Town has a carnival theme, Breakwater Bay is underwater, Space Swarm tips its hat at Space Invaders, and The Icon Garden pays homage to Iconfactory's roots in icon design.
Controls are simple and shares the same strangely compelling gameplay as Paper Toss [Free]. Flicking your finger up from the bottom of the screen rolls a ball, and depending on how fast you flick and which direction you swipe towards controls the power and aim of your shots. All of the targets award different amounts of points, and after rolling all your balls the game dispenses virtual tickets that you can buy virtual prizes for.
If you're old enough to have been around when arcades were popular, you likely have fond memories of dumping quarters in to skee ball machines, cramming your pockets full of tickets, and claiming some completely worthless reward from the prize counter. As the eventual owner of several of those terribly useless over-sized stuffed animals, Ramp Champ has provided an awesome amount of nostalgia. There's more to the game though as each of the four included machines also have their own sub-set of goals (achievements).
For instance, The Icon Garden's progressively harder goals are to plant all the pixel flowers, tip over the canine bovine, and score over 13,000 points. Planting the pixel flowers is as simple as hitting every target, I presume the canine bovine has something to do with Clarus the Dogcow, and scoring over 13,000 is self-explanatory. Completing all the goals requires a high amount of precision, and in my few days with the game I've been unable to complete more than a few of them. As a result, Ramp Champ has kept me coming back for more, since most goals seem simple at first (How hard can it be to hit 6 things with 10 balls?) but end up being much more difficult than they appear.
The Iconfactory is already offering two add-on packs that can be purchased for $0.99 a piece. Each pack contains 2 new ramps, 6 new goals, 18 new prizes, and shiny new trophies. . The videos below show the included levels on the left and the ones available via downloadable-content on the right:
If you loved Paper Toss [Free] or the included screenshots/videos are tickling your nostalgia bone, I recommend picking up Ramp Champ, as you will likely enjoy it as much as I have.
German iPhone gaming site PressHome.de (Translated) managed to score a exclusive gameplay video of Fish Labs' upcoming racing game, Rally Master Pro. Originally a J2ME mobile game, Fish Labs has leveraged the graphical power of the iPhone to add all kinds of crazy lighting, weather effects and every 3D model in the game is said to have 4x the amount of polygons from the original. We posted some screenshots of the game earlier this month when it was originally revealed, but this is the first time anyone has seen the game in motion.
Rally Master Pro is set to be released sometime this fall.
Since the announcement in late March, sports fans have been anxiously anticipating the Madden series jumping to the iPhone. We still don't know when it's going to be released outside of sometime in September, these three screenshots should whet your appetite:
We will post more information on Madden 10 as it becomes available.
Update @ 12:53PM CST (Thanks, TGR):
EA posted what appears to be the iTunes description on their Facebook page. Looks like they're going to have all 32 licensed teams with "life-like" players and real stadiums. Also included is the exclusive ability to draw your own plays using the touch interface, adjust the speed of the game, assemble your own teams, and even play in season mode with in-depth trades and other goodies. All of this wrapped up with the real voice commentary of John Madden, Tom Hammond, and Cris Collinsworth.
Magnate Interactive has just released Liberty Boom [App Store], a cute little timing / obstacle game that challenges you to put on a fireworks show that pleases the crowd across a variety of skylines throughout the U.S.
Superficially reminiscent of Xbox LIVE's Boom Boom Rocket, but without a rhythm element, Liberty Boom requires detonating each rocket within a certain window of the sky while avoiding airplanes, blimps, and UFOs. It's all about keeping an eye on the crowd meter and keeping the audience happy. (And the audience finds falling, flaming blimps a real turn off...) The longer you wait to detonate within the window, the more points you'll score, and you often need to fire early to avoid hitting a passing aircraft. It's tap to detonate within each of the four columns of the sky, and tilt to control the speed of the passing aircraft.
The list of night skylines available include Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Detroit, Miami, New York, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Sedona and Washington D.C., and the developer is accepting skyline photo submissions for future updates. Six original musical tracks accompany the aerial pyrotechnics.
Liberty Boom provides a nice bit of simple, fun timing-based gaming. And, for a limited time, it's available at the introductory price of $.99.
See the developer's video for a closer look. Positive points are shown in green, while negative scores are shown in red.
Magnate Interactive has just released Liberty Boom [
