Out of all the console games that make their way to the App Store, this may be the first instance I can think of where I've had more fun with the iPhone version than the XBOX 360/PS3 versions of a game. EA's upcoming Mirror's Edge, a formerly first-person free running game is making its way to the iPhone next month. Having spent a great deal of time with the game, all I can say is wow. My complaints with the somewhat disorienting first person view of the "full" version of the game completely melt away in to glorious side scrolling 3D platforming at its finest.

The world of Mirror's Edge is set in the future, where a totalitarian regime is in power and an underground resistance powered by runners move information around on foot to avoid to watchful eye of the government which have implemented intense levels of surveillance across all communication mediums. You play as Faith, one of these runners.

The game is controlled using very simple swiping gestures that all feel very natural. Swiping right or left makes you run in that direction, swiping up makes you jump, and swiping down makes you slide. When you run across opposition, you can also use similar gestures to take them out with a variety of moves such as sweeping their legs out from under them or jump kicking them. There are many other interactions with different obstacles you come across, like jumping off spring boards, sliding down zip lines, and wall-running across billboards.

All of these things can be seen in the following gameplay video:

If you are like me and enjoyed the idea behind the console version of Mirror's Edge, but didn't really like the first person viewpoint and all the issues that caused in a platforming environment, you will love the iPhone version of the game. All of the visibility problems are gone thanks to the 3rd person view, and the game as a whole has been transformed in to a fun reaction game instead of an often frustrating and sometimes motion-sickness inducing first person experience.

If I had to make one complaint about the game, it's that the interesting plot found in the console versions seems largely disregarded on the iPhone, and only told through irritatingly slow scrolling text on easily skippable loading screens. It's still there if you want to read through it, I just feel like there's a lot of missed potential here in turning new gamers on to the Mirror's Edge universe as I'm sure most people will just tap to play the next level instead of waiting for the story to scroll by.

Mirror's Edge is going to be released early next year, and if you're a fan of games like Canabalt [$2.99], this is most definitely a game you're going to want to keep on your watch list.

SGN has released their latest aerial combat game Skies of Glory. The follow-up to their popular F.A.S.T. game takes on a World War II theme and adopts a "freemium" business model. The game itself is free to download and play, but offers additional content through in-app purchases. Game features include:

• Multiple skirmish modes, campaigns and tons of training missions with more to come
• Engage with opponents from around the world in 8-player combat over the internet via 3G and WiFi
• Fly with friends over any local network for up to 8-player combat
• Buy more planes for your hanger to maintain a competitive edge over your opponents

Give it a try for free. Feedback and impressions are being collected in our forums.

App Store Link: Skies of Glory, Free

TouchArcade Rating:

It doesn't seem that long ago that I was completely blown away by Ridge Racer on the original PlayStation (which actually was a port itself) along with most of the gaming press at the time. Nearly 15 years later and here we are playing a comparable game on our phones. Namco's recently released Ridge Racer Accelerated [App Store] provides a lot of the same arcade racing feel as the rest of the game series, but similar to Ace Combat Xi or Pac-Man Championship Edition, the game has launched with part of the total content-- the rest either requiring in-game microtransactions or apparently coming via future updates.

Like most racing games, steering is controlled by tilting and other functions like braking or changing gears with a manual transmission are linked to on-screen buttons. Auto-acceleration is configurable in the options and defaults to off. The controls work well enough, but it seems like the tilt steering is a little touchy, even after fiddling with the sensitivity in the options. It wasn't anything game breaking, just noticeably less smooth compared to other racing games on the platform.

The arcade driving style will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played a Ridge Racer game before, but may seem strange to newcomers to the franchise as performing well in races requires a great deal of drifting around corners. Drifting is easy to initiate, all you have to do it steer in to a turn, let off the gas, and press it again and your car will be going sideways. Learning to control your drifts instead of just spinning out takes quite a bit of finesse and a lot of trial and error until you get a feel for how much to turn in to them.

The graphics of the game pale in comparison to other racing games available on the iPhone-- Especially when it comes to the shockingly low complexity car models. You would think these comparatively low levels of detail would be part of a trade-off for an insanely high framerate, but Ridge Racer Accelerated's iTunes description mentions that the iPhone 3GS is the "recommended" platform with 3G optimizations "coming soon". Except the game doesn't even perform particularly well on the 3GS, and forum members are reporting the game is flat out unplayable on older devices. (Something we haven't entirely been able to replicate in our testing.)

For reference, here is me racing poorly on an iPhone 3GS:

Much like other recent Namco games, Ridge Racer Accelerated is a veritable DLC piñata. Initially coming loaded with only two tracks (or four if you count driving the opposite direction on those same tracks) and 18 different Class 1 and Class 2 vehicles are available (6 unlocked, 12 unlockable). 6 (3 + 3 in opposite direction) additional tracks are available for $2.99 and 9 Class 5 vehicles available for $1.99.

Early reactions have been mixed on the game. Basically, it seems if you can get past the disappointing performance, long time Ridge Racer fans can still have fun with the drift-heavy racing style the game offers. The ultimate goal of each level is really to beat your previous lap times across the tracks and cars included. There's no career mode or global high scores offered. Ridge Racer offers Arcade, Duel and Survival modes using the same tracks and cars.

Further discussion and impressions can be found on our forums.

App Store Link: Ridge Racer Accelerated, $2.99

TouchArcade Rating:

Gameloft's NOVA is probably the most widely anticipated game at the moment. After first being announced in September, excitement has been high for this Halo-like first person shooter.

Gameloft released an impressive new trailer today and finally gave us a release date.

NOVA will launch on December 17th. In related news, Gameloft also released a new GT Racing trailer showing even more in-game footage. See our hands on preview for other early details.

Both Konami and IUGO have put their catalog of games on sale for the holidays. Instead of listing out every one of their games, you can browse their full catalogs in iTunes: Konami and IUGO.

Instead, we're just going to highlight one of the most interesting recent titles from each developer:

Forum members have been loving the demolition action of Implode. The game has been updated with new buildings, bombs and more. Now only $0.99.

App Store Link: Implode, $0.99

Wacky reaction game from Konami. Feels a bit like Canabalt meets a Japanese game show. Now only $0.99.

App Store Link: Tomena Sanner, $0.99

As the title may hint, Future Racer is a futuristic racing game with similar gameplay elements to Wipeout and all the other anti-gravity racers on the App Store-- A genre which has collected quite a few releases lately. Featuring six tracks which take place in various locales such as cities, sewers, and forests as well as six ships which are unlocked through the game, each with their own set of strengths and weaknesses.

Future Racer uses standard tilt controls to steer your ship, along with a button for both acceleration and braking. Where Future Racer seems to falls short is in the power-up system. The developers have mentioned that the lack of weaponry and other power-ups is because the game focuses "purely on speed and skill", but those weapons were what I like most about these types of games. Instead of missiles and other combat options, the only things there are to pick up are speed boosts and power-ups which reduce your finishing time by a few seconds.

Here's our hands on video of the game:

With recent competition from both Low Grav Racer 2 [$2.99] and Speed Forge Extreme [$2.99] it's going to be harder to stand out from the pack. Future Racer will be launching at an introductory price of $0.99 when it arrives sometime next week.

While I was in New York for EA's Naughty or Nice pre-holiday event, I made sure to swing down to the Freeverse offices to hang out with their crew and Mickey the office cat. At the time they had an extremely elaborate stop motion claymation set wedged firmly between the conference room and the Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball machine for a mysterious game in the works that was only vaguely described as based on hang man.

Hanged [App Store] is the end product of countless hours of black, white, and red stop motion animation merged with the game of hang man, and the results are odd to say the least. You choose letters from droplets on the screen, which then roll to the bottom and the wind either blows the matching letter tile over, or you're faced with a short claymation clip which get even stranger the more letters you miss.

When a word is completed, it is revealed on a love letter presumably written by the couple you're attempting to save by solving these simple word puzzles. I'm not sure if I'd call Hanged a good game as much as it just is a curiosity of sorts. There are tons of hang man games on the App Store already, but none as weirdly ornate as this one.

I have a feeling there are going to be two distinct camps of people looking at this game: Those who look at the brief video, screenshots, and complex set used to create this game and truly appreciate it's bizarre charm... And those who look at those same things and scratch their head.

App Store Link: Hanged, $1.99

TouchArcade Rating:

Gameloft's Avatar was just released last night, and the early adopter response in our forums has been overwhelmingly positive. Avatar is an action adventure game based in the Avatar movie universe.

The game tells the tale of the events leading up to the movie as a sort of prequel to the film itself. Gameloft apparently had complete access to all of the assets behind the movie, as well as recording some original voicework by the cast for use within the game. Avatar appears to use an advanced version of the engine used in Hero of Sparta but with improved visuals and 3GS specific enhancements.

Avatar plays much like a 3D platformer throughout much of its course, but also manages to mix in other play elements. Platform jumping, swinging, climbing and basic fighting are represented throughout the early levels to a much greater degree than Hero of Sparta. Controls include a virtual joystick with on-screen buttons for attack, jump and special attack. Fighting, itself, remains rather shallow and is a matter of rapid fire attacking while maneuvering around enemies (at least on medium difficulty).

Later areas of the game offer a more open world in which you explore while performing quests for villagers, and even a segment where you are playing the back of a banshee avoiding obstacles and taking out enemies. Both these elements are shown in the second video below.

Total playtime is estimated at up to 7 and a half hours across 15 different chapters which is a sizable amount of play time for an iPhone game. One of our writers did run into some troubles with characters getting stuck in parts of the environment requiring a restart as well as some other bugs -- though as far as we can tell these issues don't seem widespread. There are moments where you feel like the camera view or controls aren't cooperating properly, resulting in difficulties during the platforming portion. Generous checkpoints, however, prevent this from becoming a major issue.

While each of the individual gameplay elements isn't particularly groundbreaking, Avatar's major achievement is the sense of immersion and scale that Gameloft has managed to create in an iPhone game. Movie tie-in or not, this seems to be one of the most ambitious iPhone games to date.

App Store Link: James Cameron's Avatar, $9.99

TouchArcade Rating:

Gogogic has released their latest game Soft Freak Fiesta into the App Store today. As a special launch deal they've set the price to Free for the first 24 hours, so now's your chance to pick it up.

Soft Freak Fiesta is multi-player turn-based billiard-like game where you propel your Soft Freaks into each other to dominate the field. The game comes with a number of different maps. The goal of most maps is simply to remain the last team standing. Games are coordinated both online as well as local Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Each team sets their moves in each turn and sends their Freaks into action.

Each freak also comes with their own special weapon that can be deployed in game. Bonuses can be picked up to replenish your health. We've only been able to spend a short time with this game, but it's definitely one to pick up during the free launch sale.

App Store Link: Soft Freak Fiesta, Free (Today Only)

While there may be oodles of games based on all kinds of different physics gameplay elements, it seems like the one game type that is in severely short supply on the App Store is bridge/structure building games. Prior to this evening, the two main contenders were Moonlights [$1.99 / Free] and Tiki Towers [99¢ / Free]-- Both fantastic games that I'd recommend to any fan of the genre. However, Gameloft's newly released Bridge Odyssey [$2.99] also is a very welcome addition to the bridge building landscape.

It should be obvious by now, but the premise of Bridge Odyssey is to construct a bridge from one side of the level to the other, using a set number of pieces indicated on the top left corner of the screen. Your bridge must be strong enough to withstand the traffic of the gang of animals that you slowly pick up as you progress through the game, and for bonus points you can build your bridge so said animals collect golden eggs which are distributed throughout the levels much like bananas in Tiki Towers.

As you can see in the gameplay video, everything in the game is accomplished using simple drags and taps on the touch screen and you can zoom in and out using the familiar iPhone pinching gestures. I did have some issues with piece placement and you can see me fighting with the game in the video, but since nothing is real-time, these problems only serve as minor annoyances because you can just easily fix any piece that didn't wind up where you want it to by using the undo button.

With so few quality bridge builders on the App Store, Bridge Odyssey, Moonlights, and Tiki Towers are all worth owning. It's hard to say which is the best of the three, since they're all good in their own ways.

App Store Link: Bridge Odyssey, $2.99

TouchArcade Rating:

Mad Finger Games seems to have some of the most stand-out game artwork around. We first saw their handiwork in Samurai Way of the Warrior which was an impressive game both in art style as well as gameplay.

Mad Finger Games has just launched their Christmas title BloodyXMas which is a survival game in which you play an axe wielding Santa defending his workshop from present-theiving creatures. Santa can upgrade to 5 different weapons and play across 24 stages (days) leading up to Christmas. The artwork and animation is wonderfully done with all the cartoon gore you'd want. Online leaderboards give you some ongoing incentive to play.

Overall, the gameplay clearly falls in the casual arena. (Hands on video). Controlling Santa involves tapping on the screen to move and tapping on a creature to attack. So, relatively simple controls without near the depth found in their previous title. The game also ramps up a bit slower in difficulty than I had hoped, and like all survival games can get repetitive. But these are minor quibbles if you can accept it as the fun holiday-themed distraction it is.

App Store Link: BloodyXmas, $0.99

TouchArcade Rating:

Japanese magazine Famitsu reports (via Kotaku) that Namco Bandi is bringing a new Ridge Racer title to the iPhone.

Few details available, but the game is expected to be released this month and price to be determined.

Famitsu has posted a screenshot gallery as well as a gameplay video.

Video from AppBank:

If you haven't gone crazy with Avatar fever by now in the wake of what may very well be the most hyped movie in modern history, and are looking for a platforming adventure game set in the fantastic jungles of Pandora, an alien world inhabited by the blue skinned Na'vi, James Cameron's Avatar [App Store] for the iPhone may just be what the doctor ordered.

From our hands-on preview late last month:

The game itself merely takes place in the Avatar universe, and tells the tale of the events leading up to the movie as a sort of prequel to the film itself. Gameloft apparently had complete access to all of the assets behind the movie, as well as recording some original voicework by the cast for use within the game– Creating an experience that (to this skeptic of movie games) was quite shocking.

Avatar somehow manages to stand on its own, and instead of feeling like a game that was created for the sake of yet another marketing avenue for a movie, it feels like a game that just happens to take place in the same world as the movie. Controlled using a mixture of a virtual joystick and on-screen buttons, there are portions of the game that are reminiscent of traditional 3D platformer games like Mario 64 or Crash Bandicoot, with a combo-friendly combat system straight out of games like Hero of Sparta.

The following video shows some highlights of the first couple levels:

Later in the game you come across a Na'vi village, ride some crazy six legged horse, and there's even a Panzer Dragoon-like flying level where you pilot a banshee which can be seen in this video (which regrettably doesn't have very good sound) that was shot at the Gameloft event in Paris:

We will have a full review soon, but in the meantime first impressions and other comments are being collected from forum members in this thread.

App Store Link: James Cameron's Avatar, $9.99

We got our hands on EA's upcoming Need For Speed: Shift this week, and after spending the last few days playing through the game I'm confident in saying that EA has succeeded in bringing yet another amazing racing game to the platform. With in-game options to tune the difficulty to the point that your car is almost driving itself, Shift is not only an extremely accessible racing game, but also can be a very technical driving experience for veterans of the genre with all of the assists turned off and the manual transmission mode enabled.

Believe it or not, Need For Speed: Shift is the thirteenth in the Need For Speed series which originally debuted all the way back in 1994 with Road & Track magazine heavily advising on both the sound design and vehicle physics. Since then, the Need For Speed saga has been through many iterations covering everything from super cars to underground street racing to police chases.

With recent Need For Speed games taking sharp turns towards the arcade racing genre (Such as Need For Speed: Undercover [App Store] for the iPhone.) it's nice to see EA getting back on course with what feels much more like an actual racing simulation in Shift.

The 20 included real licensed cars can have both their visuals and performance upgraded. In the visuals department you can add a body kit, change paint colors, buy ridiculously huge spoilers, and change out your wheels. If you care more about your car actually going faster than looking cool, you can upgrade its top speed, acceleration, nitrous oxide system, as well as tires and suspension. Each of these upgrades come in multiple stages and once you've hit a car's limit to remain competitive in races you will need to buy new cars.

Cars in game must be bought with winnings from races, and available cars are slowly unlocked as you progress through the game. Initially, Chicago is the only locale you have access to, but both London and Tokyo are eventually unlocked granting access to all 18 different courses included in the game. In each locale you can participate in seven different types of events which range from standard races to drifting competitions, time trials, and the driver duel which pits you against a single AI opponent.

Each event has an associated set of stars that can be earned while racing to unlock additional events. You will always earn stars for being in the top three, with additional available stars for doing things like being in first place for an entire lap, never going off the track, and beating the track's lap record. These stars go hand in hand with the in-game score system which tallies points for both "precision" and "aggression" based on different actions.

(more...)

TouchArcade Rating:

Just over a year ago I reviewed CobraMobile's futuristic racing game Low Grav Racer [App Store]. Way back when, it was a visually impressive game and indeed the closest thing to Wipeout in the App Store. (And the degree to which any given low gravity, futuristic  racer approximates Wipeout, the king of futuristic racers, is really the critical metric in determining the game's worth, so high did Psygnosis set the bar of that genre, as every gamer other than die-hard F-Zero devotees are aware.) Though an enjoyable game and, as I indicated, Wipeout-like, Low Grav Racer was, in fact, no Wipeout. Surely driven by the urge to close the gap, CobraMobile has just released Low Grav Racer 2 [App Store] for the iPhone and iPod touch. So how does it fare?

Low Grav Racer 2 puts you in control of any of six futuristic racing craft (three of which must be unlocked) in a race to the finish line across 18 different planet and space system-based tracks. There are two race modes: Single Play and Time Trial. The former is a competition to complete each track in first place against five AI competitors, while the latter is a solo challenge to get from start to finish in the least time possible. As in Wipeout, leading the pack involves more than just speed and savvy handling; it involves weaponry. Scattered about each track are power-ups that enable shields, mines, missiles of several types, speed boosts, and various other items of destruction that help to slow down the competition -- and, likewise, help the competition put a little slow on you.

(more...)

TouchArcade Rating: