A few days ago EA surprised us with some screenshots of the upcoming iPhone action adventure game Mirror's Edge. The PC and console versions of the game are absolutely chock full of long jumps, crazy acrobatics, and hand to hand combat. From the looks of this trailer, the iPhone version is going do a good job of providing a similar feel-- Although not from a first person perspective.
EA Mobile posted the video to their main site, but we've embedded here for your convenience.
For the sake of comparison, here is the original trailer for the "full" version of the game available for home consoles and the PC. It's interesting that many of the scenes are identical between the trailers but from a different perspective:
What little else we know about the iPhone version of Mirror's Edgewas posted in our preview article. The game is expected for release in January 2010.
Needless to say, we will be following Mirror's Edge very closely.
Developers Russ Menapace and Josh Presseisen have been hard at work following the release of their open-world 3D RPG Ravensword: The Fallen King [App Store]. The 1.1 update which features some new content and bug fixes has already been submitted, and hopefully will be available sometime soon.
For players who have completed the main quest of Ravensword, two secret areas have been added for you to find and explore: The Forest of Lamneth and the Dungeon of Lamneth. Each area is host to an array of even tougher enemies, including the new "Uber Ogre" which is said to be on par with the "Mega Troll". The "Uber Ogre" is a level 60 baddie that gamers will likely have to put their heads together in the Ravensword thread to formulate a strategy to bring him down.
Additional magical items have been added such as a lightning rune which you can use to zap enemies and an Amulet of Mana which allows unlimited use of magical runes. The catch? It just so happens that the lightning rune was lost in the Forest of Lamneth somewhere and the previously mentioned "Uber Ogre" is wearing the Amulet of Mana.
Several bugs have been fixed, and in the gameplay tweaks department the tap to target distance has been increased and the swipe sensitivity has been turned up for quicker turning. Adventurers with a keen eye will find treasures hidden around the town area, and the price of the starting dagger has been decreased. Also, Ravensword 1.1 will include an option to flip the screen orientation.
As mentioned previously, the update has already been submitted to the Apple although it's hard to say how they will handle the approval process as we get closer and closer to the year-end holidays-- But we can keep our fingers crossed it gets released soon.
We first caught wind of Guerrilla Bob towards the end of October when their debut trailer was released. A new video was unveiled this morning showing even more of the actual gameplay including moving platforms, weapon and power-up collection, as well as what looks like some type of boss encounter.
As mentioned in our previous preview, Guerrilla Bob takes the familiar twin stick shooter format and adds structured gameplay beyond the usual walking in circles killing everything that moves. Angry Mob Games has been working on Guerilla Bob for the last seven months now, and the amount of time and talent invested in the project is clearly seen in the following video:
According to CEO Bogdan Iliesiu, the game's development is in its final stages, and all they have left is a few finishing touches and a massive amount of testing to make sure the game has a flawless launch. He's currently estimating Guerrilla Bob will be submitted to Apple in about three weeks, and should be in gamers' hands sometime in January if all goes as planned. In the meantime, check out the official Guerrilla Bob thread in our upcoming games forum.
In what is likely the calm before the storm of an onslaught of pre-holiday iPhone releases, here are a few games that were recently updated or put on sale (along with a few freebies) that are worth a look:
Minigore, 99¢ - The recent episode 3 update that we previewed last week has finally arrived, bringing several new playable characters in to the mix as well two characters that are unlocked via a 99¢ in-app purchase. A grenade launcher, upgradeable weapons, and a day/night cycle were added as well-- And of course, Minigore fans are already going crazy in the Minigore thread.
Implode!, $1.99 - IUGO's best-selling physics-based demolition puzzle game was updated with 20 new levels (10 of those sporting a holiday theme) as well as a bunch of other tweaks and improvements like saving the locations of your bombs between attempts, replays, and decreased load times.
Geared Free, FREE - The lite version of Bryan Mitchel''s wildly popular Geared [99¢] received an update recently doubling the amount of content in the free version of the game. If you haven't tried out this fantastic gear alignment puzzler, you have 16 levels waiting for you. If you need any more reason to try the lite version, take a look at our review.
Dark Raider S, FREE - The enhanced version version of the original Dark Raider [$2.99 / Free] is now free for a limited time. This dual stick shooter adventure game features all kinds of fancy lighting effects and bump mapping and serves as a decent little tech demo for what the platform is capable of in those areas. This version of the game only will work on the iPhone 3GS and 3rd generation iPod touch-- Sorry previous-generation device owners.
Amateur Surgeon Christmas Edition, FREE - Adult Swim recently released what amounts to a holiday re-skin of their silly surgery game, Amateur Surgeon [$2.99 / Free]. Five levels are included where you will use Christmas-themed instruments to patch up elves, yetis, and even Santa himself. If you like the Christmas Edition, I recommend giving the full Amateur Surgeon a try for even more of the same wacky gameplay.
Polyhedra, FREE - The Appvent Calendar revealed Polyhedra, a relaxing gravity-powered puzzler, as the free game today. Different levels provide different shapes to work with, and to complete a level 66% of the screen must be filled with those shapes, and you only have a limited number of shapes that can be used on each level. Unique, and totally worth a download especially while it's free.
Mass Effect Galaxy, 99¢ (Originally $1.99) - Today's entry in EA's holiday sale series, Mass Effect Galaxy is somewhat disappointing with tilt to move mechanics, a combat system that doesn't make sense, and extremely long-winded dialog segments. But, if you're a fan of the Mass Effect universe, Galaxy might be worth picking up just to take in the small bit of Mass Effect lore inside of this game.
Pocketball, 99¢ (Originally $1.99) - Yet another physics based puzzle game, Pocketball asks you to navigate colored balls in to their respective bins using ropes that you connect to pegs on the game board. This is one of my favorite puzzle games that has been released lately, we enjoyed it in our review and there's even a lite version to try.
Cobra Command, 99¢ (Originally $4.99) - Last but certainly not least is Revolutionary Concepts' fantastic port of Cobra Command, a laserdisc arcade game of the 1980's. It was hard to recommend to people who weren't retro fanatics, but at 99¢, Cobra Command is a game anyone who even had their interest remotely piqued by the above video should snag. If you need something else to push you over the edge, check out our review.
The classic laserdisc video game Dragon's Lair has made its way to the App Store this evening. Originally released to the arcade in 1983, this full motion animated game was a massive departure from the other games of the era. According to Wikipedia, a Newsweek quote from August, 1983 captures the excitement of the game at the time:
Dragon's Lair is this summer's hottest new toy: the first arcade game in the United States with a movie-quality image to go along with the action... The game has been devouring kids' coins at top speed since it appeared early in July. Said Robert Romano, 10, who waited all day in the crush at Castle Park without getting to play, "It's the most awesome game I've ever seen in my life."
Former Disney animator Don Bluth created the animation for the game which was a series of laserdisc movie sequences with user controlled branch points that allowed the game to continue. The timing of the moves were critical to success and consisted of a choice of moving a joystick in 4 directions or pressing an action (swordplay) button. Of course, by today's standards, the gameplay is simplistic and unforgiving.
The iPhone version of the game offers the use of an on screen sword button as well as a virtual direction pad that can be sized in small, medium or large views. The player has an option of choosing 3, 5 or Infinite lives. Infinite is actually chosen by default which is presumably a concession by the iPhone developers for the unforgiving nature of the game. For a more realistic "arcade" experience, you'll want to ratchet down the number of lives.
Dragon's Lair for the iPhone also offers a live "Move Guide" which highlights which button to tap as you play. If that sounds absurdly easy (it's not), but again it's a reflection of just how difficult the original game was to play. You can (and should) turn off the Move Guide to see how the game was originally played.
In order to preserve the game's original play, the developers have included an "Arcade" mode as well as a "Home" mode. The Arcade mode is described as a perfect translation of the way the 1983 arcade machine played. They even warn you that it might not be the way you remember the game, but it is how it was. In this mode, if you fail a sequence, you are not allowed to play it again immediately. Instead, you move onto the next sequence. The Home mode plays more one might expect where you must pass a scene in order to proceed. The Home mode also includes extra movie sequences that were never shown in the arcade version.
The embedded video shows both both Home and Arcade modes as well as Move Guide On and Off. Not being a Dragon's Lair expert, I failed horribly playing the game with the Move Guide off, and not much better with the Guide on.
The game is well implemented and should be a treat for anyone who remembers the original version. If you ever waited patiently in line for a chance to play the arcade game as Robert Romano (now age 36) did back in the day, this is clearly a "must have" for nostalgia value. At $4.99, it represents the equivalent of 10 plays of the original $.50 arcade game. If you're too young to remember this game, however, it's not one you should buy for the gameplay, but primarily for it's historical significance.
Ngmoco's first update to their first person shooter Eliminate Pro is now available. The 1.1 upgrade adds a number of new features which we outlined just a couple of nights ago.
With its monkey rolling, twitch-balancing action, the Monkey Ball series seems like an easy sell on the iPhone. Despite stemming from a console franchise that’s been around for nearly a decade, the concept almost feels like it was grown specifically for the iPhone. If anything, this was a series that was waiting for the right platform to come along. But when Super Monkey Ball was released alongside the AppStore launch last summer, the results were anything but super. The controls were poorly executed and the visuals felt like a hand-me-down from the days when 16 bit gaming was trying to step out of 2D – the whole experience just wasn’t up to par. Now, 18 months later, Sega gets much closer to delivering the Monkey Ball game that everybody wants.
The objective in Super Monkey Ball 2 (like all games in the series) is to guide a monkey who is trapped in a ball to an exit without letting him roll off the playing field. You’ll navigate a variety of wild and well designed environments all the while using the power of tilt to control the ball. The game relies heavily on the concept of momentum, so you’ll need to make sure that you’re always moving at a controllable speed so that you can navigate the treacherous terrain laid before you.
Super Monkey Ball 2, while far from perfect, is leaps and bounds better than its predecessor. Visually the game has stepped boldly into the world of 3D graphics, looking a fair bit like the Gamecube games that paved the way for the series success. Both the main characters and the environments look completely up to what you’d seen in its home console brethren. Considering the last game felt less like a modern portable and more like the bonus stage from Sonic 2, this is a massive and welcome improvement.
While stepped-up visuals are nice, the real sticking point with the series previous entry was the controls. The game sees a major improvement here as well, but it’s still far from perfect. The good news is you’ll never have a problem telling your monkey where to roll anymore. The bad news? You can’t set your default position for the tilt and you can’t control tilt sensitivity. To keep your monkey perfectly still you’ll need to hold your iPhone at about 10 degrees from a perfectly upright position. That means you’ll need to prop your iPhone directly in front of your face if you want to control your amiable ape without much difficulty. Those of us who don’t want to look like schmucks while rolling our monkeys around on the bus are completely out of luck, as holding the iPhone near your lap is really going to ramp up how difficult it is to get a handle on your monkey.
The lack of a tilt sensitivity adjustment definitely came across as an annoyance as well. Sure anyone can adjust to what’s offered in terms of tilting, but I found that sensitivity was just far too touchy for my liking. I had to make extra tiny delicate little moves to control my simian without bowling him clear off the playing field. As a big, brutish, relatively careless gamer, the forced precision seemed a little excessive. Tilt sensitivity controls would have fixed all of that.
Despite these annoyances, the controls still feel far more responsive than what we experienced in Monkey Ball’s first iPhone outing. This time around the controls are manageable and anyone can adapt to what’s on the table.
The game has seen other improvements as well. Mini-games have always been a staple of the franchise, but they were conspicuously absent from the previous endeavour. This time around the game features Monkey Bowling – a complete bowling game where you roll your monkey ball instead of the traditional three-holed variety. Two other mini-games – Monkey Golf and Monkey Target – have placeholder spots in the menu with big “coming soon” messages attached. It’s a shame that the content wasn’t included at launch, but at least we know more is on the way.
Multiplayer is also a welcome addition, supporting up to 4 players over local wifi. The multiplayer offering isn’t incredibly deep – you can race against friends to complete each level in record time and play mini-games together – but that doesn’t keep it from being a nice bonus to players seeking a party experience. If anything, it’s what games like Monkey Bowling were made for.
Monkey Ball fans are going to be delighted by the improvements here, but it’s hard to deny that Super Monkey Ball 2 is far from perfect. Should Sega decide to introduce some tilt adjusting options when they release the extra mini-games, Super Monkey Ball 2 would be a much easier offering to recommend. In the meantime, I still found it just a little too twitchy and sensitive to keeps the waves of frustration at bay.
Profusion Studio's recent App Store release, iStunt - Extreme 2D Snowboard [link], is, as its title implies, a snowboarding game -- but it may as well be one of the numerous physics-based dirt bike games of which it is a clone. But that's not meant in a bad way; iStunt is a very well executed iPhone release.
The game challenges you to traverse 20 different, surreal levels in an attempt to either score as many points as possible by pulling off amazing stunts (Stunt Mode) or getting to the finish line as quick as possible (Time Trial Mode). The levels consist of extreme slopes, floating mountains, fields of stalagmites, and treacherous spinning saw blades. Making things even more interesting is the occasional gravity inversion field which requires physically rotating the device 180-degrees to get back on track. It's a pretty interesting ride.
The orientation of the on-screen snowboarder is controlled via tilt and the well-implemented physics system delivers a convincing and satisfying feel of control. This, coupled with its very smooth animation, lets you forgive the game for the simplicity of its visuals. iStunt is all about feel, precise control, and a lot of fun.
iPhone gamers who enjoy a very simple but clever, physics-based challenge (more than those looking for hardcore snowboarding action...) should have a good time with this one.
geoSpark was released into the app store last night. The game was first announced on our podcast by geoDefense creator David Whatley. Whatley and the husband and wife team of Imangi Studios ("gaming’s cutest couple") teamed up for this casual reaction game.
geoSpark adopts the same retro/vector graphics of geoDefense but applies them to a reaction game that works really well on the iPhone. In geoSpark your job is to eliminate "sparks" by combining them. Each spark comes in a different shape and color and you must only combine like-ones. Controls are intuitive and simply involve touching and dragging sparks into each other. If any two different sparks collide with each other, then it's game over. This can occur by you accidentally dragging a spark into another or if they simply happen to drift into each other.
Chaining sparks by holding and dragging can be done to boost your score, but the longer you do this, your finger begins to develop a strong gravitation force accelerating the free floating sparks, increasing the likelihood of a collision. A number of included power-ups also keep the action fresh. Global high scores provide the incentive to try again, and it really becomes a balance between becoming too greedy or not when it comes to chains. Chains mean more points, but also mean a higher chance of death.
The gameplay video shows how it's done:
I've had a lot of fun with geoSpark, as it really captures that self berating motivation to keep trying. Death comes as a surprise and usually as a result of a momentary lapse that pushes you to try again. Add to that a great touch mechanic, and you have a really great casual iPhone game.
2XL Games has built a solid reputation in the iPhone game space as a maker of quality offroad racing games with their 2XL Supercross and more recent 2XL ATV Offroad. And so it was with some surprise that we took a look at their most recent App Store release, 2XL Fleet Defense [link]. An offroad racer, this is not -- but so much more hangs in the balance...
Caught in the middle of an international crisis, you are the naval aviator charged with the defense of your carrier and the lives that depend on it from the enemy’s relentless attack. Fortunately, you are in control of the world’s most advanced jet fighter. The F-35 is a modern marvel, centralizing all information and controls at your command.
With the ominous threat of a looming nuclear attack, millions of lives hang in the balance. Can you navigate the perilous political waters to save the lives of your crew while preventing a nuclear war? The entire world is watching your every move…
(And that's just a small part of the gripping backstory.) As indicated, Fleet Defense puts you in control of the carrier-based F-35 in a bid to defend your ship and crew. It works like this: You're presented with a 2D, top-down ocean playfield with a carrier at the center and enemy ships and aircraft encroaching from all directions. A pop-up radar aids in choosing which crafts to eliminate first. Spending any time with the game reveals it to have a feel similar to Flight Control and Harbor Master, in that dealing with oncoming craft in exactly the proper sequence is key. But, rather than drawing lines to plot the course of inbound boats and planes, you scroll about the playfield and tap on an enemy craft to target, which sends your F-35 on an intercept course. When your fighter gets close enough, it fires a missile and destroys the craft, allowing you to select the next target.
Your carrier base can take a certain amount of damage from enemy vessels before being completely destroyed, and it can heal itself while your F-35 is on deck and it's not under attack (tap the carrier to land). The carrier itself is not without defenses; it is equipped with a highly powerful defense system known as the Phalanx, which is basically a volley of ordnance in all directions, but it's very slow to charge and, as such, must be used only at critical moments.
See our brief gameplay video for a look at the action.
The game includes an achievement system as well as online leaderboards which add to your skill incentive. Fans of either of the aforementioned craft management games should find Fleet Defense to be a challenging (and enjoyably frustrating) twist on the formula. Fun isn't all about offroad racing, after all.
We expect you're following the Appvent Calendar but if you're not, here's the latest one-day freebie we feel compelled to tell you about.
We reviewed this one back in September, and quite enjoyed the swipe interface and art style. There were some game balance issues, though that has been addressed in a recent update.
On the heels of the Modern Combat multiplayer update, comes exclusive details and screenshots about Ngmoco's upcoming 1.1 update for Eliminate Pro.
The 1.1 update which has already been submitted to Apple will offer a number of armor updates, new skins, higher ranks and a new map for the popular first person shooter. One of the most anticipated addition comes with a new arctic map called "Knox" (pictured above).
Players will also be allowed to try limited use "prototype" armor sets that come already upgraded. This lets you test a set of armor complete with upgrades for a limited time without having to invest a ton of time and money by going down a path you aren't sure you'll like. Beyond this, Ngmoco is introducing new armor mods that allow you to further enhance armors beyond the stat limits of current sets.
Special themed skins will also be available as seen here. And Ngmoco is also upping the rank cap of 50 all the way up to 70, to provide maxed out players loftier goals to shoot for. Finally, the ability to invert controls will finally be available.
The 1.1 update should arrive any day now. Apple seems to be rapidly approving app submissions ahead of the holidays.
Gameloft has released the promised online multiplayer update for their first person shooter Modern Combat: Sandstorm. Modern Combat was perhaps the first successfully executed first person shooter for the iPhone, so the addition of online multiplayer has been a much anticipated feature.
With the update having just gone live, it's really too early to tell much. Obviously, if you own Modern Combat already, go ahead and download the free update and give it a try yourself. Here are a series of screenshots from the game.
The game offers 3 different multi-player maps which seem fairly large, certainly compared to Eliminate's current maps.
Both Solo and Team games can be set up with time limits and kill limits. Total online players seem to be limited to 4 so Team play is really 2 on 2.
Once you join a match, you choose which class you would like to be which offers you different weapons.
The people that have been able to play a session seem to be impressed, but my experience so far is spotty. I haven't been able to stay connected to a match to really get into a game. [See update below]
As I said before, it's too early to say much about the gameplay as the update was just released. Over the next day, we'll see how the servers pick up and the user base grows. If you own Modern Combat, simply try the update out for yourself. If you were waiting for this update before buying, you'll have to wait a bit longer to get a clear picture. The discussion of the game is continuing in our massive forum thread.
Update: It seems for those on iPhones, even though you must play over Wi-Fi, turning off 3G (or turn on Airplane Mode) seems to actually make a big difference in your Wi-Fi connectivity. It doesn't make sense, so we're not sure if this is a fluke or an actual bug, but if you're having trouble connecting to servers, try this. Now that we've been able to connect, things are running very well.
Here are a few more trailers for upcoming games (Driver, HAWX, and Skies of Glory) that looks quite nice. Driver's trailer in particular shows a lot more of the game and car damage than our earlier hands-on video.
Last month we had John Kooistra on our podcast to talk about Blue Defense!, Blue Attack! and his upcoming game, Red Conquest. Unfortunately, Red Conquest had some extremely minor issues during Apple's approval process, but the game has since been fixed, resubmitted, and hopefully will be released soon. In the meantime, two new videos were unveiled today-- A trailer, and a video showing a walkthrough of one of the levels:
John Kooistra's games have had a massive fan following on our forums, and there's already a thread filled with people waiting for Red Conquest. Needless to say, when the game is finally released, we will be posting a full review.
The game challenges you to traverse 20 different, surreal levels in an attempt to either score as many points as possible by pulling off amazing stunts (Stunt Mode) or getting to the finish line as quick as possible (Time Trial Mode). The levels consist of extreme slopes, floating mountains, fields of stalagmites, and treacherous spinning saw blades. Making things even more interesting is the occasional gravity inversion field which requires physically rotating the device 180-degrees to get back on track. It's a pretty interesting ride.
