Touch Arcade recently had the opportunity to visit Gameloft's Manhattan offices to preview a number of forthcoming iPhone titles. Among them was the sequel to the studio's late-2008 iPhone release, Brothers In Arms: Hour of Heroes.

Set to make its App Store debut in the next week and a half or so, Brothers In Arms 2 is a title developed specifically for the iPhone that is designed to run smoothly on all iPhone platform devices. Unlike its iPhone predecessor, which featured an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective, Brothers in Arms 2 delivers a first-person shooter experience.

The game features six different play environments -- the Pacific, North Africa, Italy, Normandy, Germany, and Ardennes -- across 16 levels, each of which offers 25-30 minutes of playtime (6+ hours total, estimated), basically double that of the iPhone original. While much of the combat is carried out running, dodging, and ducking through the various environs on foot, airplanes, motorcycles, and tanks are also thrown into the mix.

I spent a brief period with the game in the studio, playing through the test build's early stages and found it to be a rather well done, graphically impressive work that ran glass smooth on the 3G iPod touch demo unit. And, while I only put the initial weapons through their paces, the game offers much in the way of munitions. The list includes a bazooka, fixed minigun, iron bar (--whack--), flame thrower, a Thompson, sub machine gun, and grenades.

Coming from Gameloft, a comparison to the studio's highly popular space-based FPS N.O.V.A. [App Store] is inevitable. While the core controls between the two games are are similarly arranged and responsive, Brothers in Arms 2 definitely has more of a duck-and-cover mechanic to it than N.O.V.A., which feels a bit more "brute force" / barrel through the enemy. And, while both are quite visually impressive, due to the nature of the environments, Brothers in Arms 2 probably gets to strut its stuff a bit more, as far as laying down distant polygons in vast surroundings.

If the campaign gameplay grows tiresome, there's a local WiFi multiplayer option available that features an in-game text chat system (to help dole out the smack). The option to override the in-game audio track with music from your iTunes library has been provided, as well.

We've been tracking Chillingo's forthcoming 3D adventure shooter Vampire Origins since April of last year. The studio has just given us word that the game is approaching its App Store debut -- though no solid date has been set -- and has provided a series of screenshots along with a new demo video to help whet the appetite.

Vampire Origins should appeal to fans of Gothic adventures. It pits Dracula's arch-nemesis Van Helsing against a vast horde of underworld creatures. The game features a Diablo-like battle system, dispensing with more complicated inventory and weaponry systems in the name of fast-paced action. Chillingo indicates that, while puzzles and exploration of the game's vast Gothic environs are part of the mix, the focus first and foremost is on action and killing enemies.

We'll bring further information about this upcoming title as we get it.

For the many that surely missed it, on Wednesday Apple quietly announced a new member of the iPhone OS family, the iPad. And, while it runs existing iPhone applications just fine in a pixel-for-pixel or 2x-scaled mode, the device with its 9.7-inch screen has much more to offer in the way of screen real estate (over 5x the pixel count of the iPhone) and both CPU and GPU power. The iPad proposition gives iPhone developers much to ponder in the way of just how best to support it.

James Brown, author of the lovely, zen-like frog manipulation game Anicent Frog [App Store] has, himself, begun to ponder the situation and has shared his thoughts on what he feels makes the most sense in bringing Ancient Frog to the iPad, in a recent blog post.

I can make the current iPhone application recognise the iPad and behave more like a native application on that platform. What I've done here is run it at 768x1024, but allowing it to letterbox slightly to retain the original aspect ratio (luckily the ragged border gives me a neat way to bring the edges in a bit, as well as a bit of room to lose some pixels top and bottom). This already looks way better than the previous shot - lots of elements are still blurry, but things that appear at varying scales in the game are already at a higher resolution. This means the text, the daisy and the particle effects are all crisp, which makes the whole thing seem higher resolution

He goes on to point out that fully supporting the iPad's enhanced resolution in his existing iPhone game would not only require a reworking of the graphics that make up every level, but would also push the game above the 10MB barrier for Edge / 3G download, which would greatly reduce the game's "impulse buy" potential for iPhone users.

Brown's plan is to bring the incremental upgrade that he describes, enhancing the game experience on the iPad in the near term and, down the road, release a separate, larger iPad-only version that takes full advantage of the device, but does not penalize iPhone and iPod touch gamers with a larger install.

For new games, moving forward, building in specific support for the iPad is one thing. But reaching into the back catalog to refresh existing titles for Apple's new device is quite another. Just what degree of iPad support is worth adding? What make the most sense? Once gamers start getting iPads in their hands, the early reaction to the experience of gaming on the device, as well as overall sales levels, should help answer that question. But developers and gamers alike should keep in mind the fact that, when the App Store launched, the iPhone had been on the market for a full year with millions of units sold. When a gamer downloads the first iPad game from the App Store, its market will be starting at zero. As such, it will be some time before developers determine where the "sweet spot" of iPad development effort lies.

App Store Link: Ancient Frog, $4.99

Little White Bear Studio's match-three puzzler Compression [App Store], normally $0.99, is free for today only. We took a look at Compression earlier this month and very much liked what we saw.

While the match-three space in the App Store couldn't be called anything but downright crowded, Compression manages to keep things interesting. You control blocks that drop from the top of the screen and attempt to match these blocks to the hollow pieces in order to get three of the same color in a column or row, which removes the pieces from the game board.

The twist in Compression's gameplay is in the walls, which move in closer and closer in a set pattern after every third piece is dropped into the board. A set of white dots appear on the section of the wall (either bottom, left, or right) that will compress inward next, so players can tailor their placement of blocks to best deal with the walls, which can remove blocks from the field if there is no more room for them after the board gets compressed.

In short, Compression just gets it right. The core gameplay is different enough to set it apart from the umpteen-million other match-three games on the App Store and simultaneously familiar enough that anyone can pick up the game and be relatively adept within minutes. Don't miss today's chance to grab the game for free.

App Store Link: Compression, Free (today)

Late last month we got a sneak peek at Sega's Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games [App Store] and its official release this afternoon seems to be very similar, if not the exact same game we played in December. You can compete as Sonic or any of his included friends in four events: Skeleton, curling, figure skating, and snowboard cross. However, with only four events the game feels like a stripped down version of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games for the Nintendo DS, which not only has many more events to compete in, but also Nintendo characters.

Skeleton is a basic tilt-based pipe racing game of sorts where you pick up rings and hit areas on the track to gain speed. Figure skating plays a lot like a very slow-paced version of Elite Beat Agents with areas to tap and drag along with the music. Snowboard cross is a very basic snowboarding game, that also feels way too slow.

The best event in the entire game is curling. From our preview:

Curling is a team game where two teams of four players take turns sliding polished stones down a stretch of ice towards a target. Two sweepers walk in front of the stone sweeping the ice to change its direction and speed. It seems that curling has gained a curious amount of popularity in recent winter games, but if you haven't heard of it before I recommend reading the Wikipedia entry, as it downright crazy how complicated such a seemingly simple game can be.

The implementation of curling is really quite good, and it works well with the touch screen controls to control your throw as well as the sweepers. Curling can be seen in the following gameplay video:

Overall, Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games does little more than remind me of how great any game with Sonic in the title used to be, and how bad recent Sonic games have been. If you're not interested in curling, there really isn't much reason to pick this game up, as the other three events aren't much fun at all.

App Store Link: Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, $4.99

IUGO is the latest developer to throw their hat in to the dual-stick shooter ring with Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet, a game where trailer park resident Daisy Mae fends off an alien invasion. Included in the game are tons of different aliens (and some huge boss aliens), a bunch of different weapons, unlockable costumes, and online leaderboards. There's also a taunt system, but it isn't very clear how it works from the video:

Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet comes with three different control options where the game will either auto-shoot for you, provide a button to mash to shoot, or the more traditional dual-stick approach. IUGO expects to see Daisy Mae on the App Store sometime in February.

The guys at Illusion Labs are no stranger to getting their games running on crazy hardware setups. If you've played Touchgrind [$4.99], watching this video of the game running on a giant multi-touch surface will really make you want a similar multi-touch coffee table in your living room.

The latest thing out of the Illusion Labs labs, is a 24" Apple Cinema Display with an accelerometer on it-- Presumably either an iPod touch or an iPhone duct taped to the back. They then put together a custom build of Labyrinth 2 [$4.99 / Free], only instead of just rendering the same game at a higher resolution, they kept all the components the same resolution and made the levels much bigger.

Obviously the 24" display is higher resolution than the iPad, but the following video gives you a great idea of what some of the iPad optimized games could be like:

Also, we recently stumbled across a video of a massive multi-touch game of Missile Command, although a lot of the skill required to play the game seems to be lost when you can launch ten precisely targetted missiles at once just by touching with your hands. Either way, these giant tech demos of iPhone games are really getting us excited for the iPad.

Free today only, Battle Bears [App Store] is a survival shooter with a completely ridiculous premise that is totally worth downloading for the opening cut scene alone, even if you never make it farther than that.

From our review:

Imagine a world in which you are caught behind enemy lines, and your only hope is to take out an endless onslaught of pink bears whose only wish is to hug you to death. Welcome to Battle Bears.

Since we first looked at it, Battle Bears has been updated a number of times to add all kinds of new content, online scoring via OpenFeint, and other goodies such as a legion of zombie bears and the dreaded Colbear boss. The trailer for Battle Bears 1.5 shows a few of these things:

We included Battle Bears in our best games of 2009 listing, and it's still a game I recommend to people just because it is so weird. Whatever you do today, make sure you download Battle Bears, and while you're at it, tell your friends, co-workers, and neighbors to download it too.

App Store Link: Battle Bears, Free - Today only, normally 99¢.

Originally announced in mid-2008, it sounds like Trism 2, the sequel to the early iPhone smash hit Trism [App Store], is one step closer to seeing the light of day. Demiforce released the following teaser trailer, mentioning that Trism 2 is not only coming for the iPod touch and iPhone, but also the iPad:

We got in touch with developer Steve Demeter to get some more details on what to expect in Trism 2. While he's not releasing any screenshots just yet, he did mention that Trism 2 is being overhauled from the ground up, and apparently looks quite a bit nicer than the first. The sequel will also have multiplayer, but is implemented in "a really fun way that you might not intially suspect".

Demeter hopes to have an iPad optimized combo app that also will run on the iPhone or iPod touch, but isn't ready to make any promises yet because of how important he feels being under the 10MB 3G download cap is. The sequel of course will also include a "classic" mode that will play like the original where players tilt their device to alter gravity while sliding rows of triangles to make matches.

For more information on Trism check out our review.

Apple put up their full keynote today which can be streamed online or downloaded through iTunes by subscribing to the Apple events podcast. We clipped out the three games shown during the keynote:

• X Games SnoCross, $4.99
• N.O.V.A. - Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance, $6.99
• Need for Speed Shift, $6.99

SnoCross was demonstrated as an example of a, existing 3D game from the App Store running on the iPad, while both N.O.V.A. and Need for Speed were tweaked to show some iPad-specific functionality utilizing the additional screen real estate available on the larger and higher resolution screen:

Following the keynote, Joystiq got some hands-on time with the device where they played Need for Speed, N.O.V.A. and Scrabble:

Also, if you listened to our recent podcast and want to hear more of what developers think of the iPad, both Joystiq and Boing Boing have great articles worth reading.

With the introduction of the Apple iPad yesterday, many developers seem genuinely excited about the prospect of bringing their games to the large-format device. During our Podcast we discussed that some games would be better suited than others to take advantages of such a large surface area. So here are a few that we think would benefit the most.

Tower Defense

Fieldrunners

Fieldrunners and almost any other Tower Defense game would be able to take unique advantage of the large scale size of the iPad. Right now, most iPhone games require you to zoom in and out or pan across maps to manage towers and track the creeps. Imagine playing with a massively large map with a full overhead view.

Line Drawing

Boom Brigade

Any line-drawing games such as Flight Control and Harbor Master would benefit from a large screen. In fact, both developers have already announced their intentions to make iPad-specific versions. It would also change the game play balance entirely, potentially making for a much more frantic play field. But the one line drawer that we always felt was handicapped by the iPhone's screen size was Boom Brigade. In Boom Brigade you could draw lines to direct your troops into formations to attack the enemies. The problem was that the screen was so small, there wasn't enough space to do much maneuvering. That will change with the iPad.

Board Games

Monopoly

Monopoly and every other board game out there are a perfect match for the iPad. Not only because you can actually see the entire board at once, but also because there's enough room on the device to actually play with other people in your family. Board games have always been social games, but that aspect tends to be lost when you are playing on a 3.5" device. The iPad may be the perfect way to revive these under appreciated games.

Real Time Strategy

Command & Conquer

StarCraft, well, maybe not StarCraft specifically, but aside from Command & Conquer Red Alert there really hasn't been many full-featured RTSs that we've enjoyed because of how difficult cramming all of the different interface elements required to control your units and micromanage your base requires way too much screen space on the iPhone. C&C did it best, and even then it felt like way too much of the screen was wasted on large finger-sized buttons. With the increased area for countless interface elements, the iPad could be the perfect device for realtime strategy games.

If you have your own ideas of what kind of games would be best served by a 9.7" multi-touch display, let us know in the comments.

If you would have asked me a few days ago what the best Missile Command game was on the App Store, I would have responded Earth vs Moon without hesitation. That is, before I downloaded Pangea Software's Warheads [App Store], a game that takes the standard Missile Command formula, and then smears a layer of explosions, particle effects, and other eye candy creating a totally over the top experience.

Radio chatter calls out which sector the current barrage of incoming missiles is coming from, the camera shifts to that direction, and you tap the screen to fire your own missiles. The gameplay isn't anything we haven't seen before, but the sound effects coupled with the camera shaking around and the constant change of direction really creates a surprisingly frantic atmosphere, especially when you advance in attack waves and difficulty.

Four different power-ups can be shot down which give you bonus ammo, bonus points, make the explosion radius of your missiles larger, or clear the whole screen. To see how this all ties together, check out the following gameplay video:

The truly unfortunate thing about Warheads is the lack of any kind of online scoring. This is a game that is practically begging for some kind of online leaderboard and achievement system. In its current state, there isn't much replay value to be found short of just beating your own scores locally. Regardless, I'm sure there are some Missile Command fans out there who will appreciate what Pangea has done with the classic 30 year old gameplay.

App Store Link: Warheads, 99¢

TouchArcade Rating:

Vertical shooters are one of the oldest genres in gaming, and developers have been trying to figure out a way to create games that stand out amongst the crowded market for just as long. Eveningstar [App Store], developed by Divine Robot, does a good job of mixing up its tried-and-true gameplay with a unique element: a secondary weapon that's controlled in a unique and interesting way.

There is a backstory for Eveningstar that's accessible in text form through the main menu, but it's not really important. The important thing is that you are a dude in spaceship with a deadly magnetic ball called "the Eveningstar" orbiting you. The Eveningstar does major damage to anything it touches, and while it can't be controlled directly, it can be manipulated by moving your ship around to create a slingshot effect. Your ship is controlled by touching anywhere on the screen and dragging, and the Eveningstar follows behind. People in our forums found it quite difficult to control the Eveningstar at first, but reported becoming much better at it after spending a little time with the game.

Aesthetically, Eveningstar impresses. Each of the game's nine levels are set in different elementally-themed locations that draw from unique color palettes. These levels and the enemies that populate them are extremely well drawn, with animation that looks great and feels appropriate for the game's art direction. The occasional 3D effects on some objects seems a little strange, but despite the inconsistency in which items are 3D and which items are not, everything looks good. Complimenting Eveningstar's pleasant graphics is the orchestral soundtrack, which is of professional quality. The epic score makes headphones highly recommendable, as they can add to the overall experience in a way that really shouldn't be missed.

Unlike many other vertically-scrolling shooters, Eveningstar's camera is extremely slow to scroll, making the game intentionally slow-paced. This might be for the best, as there's a pretty cool physics system in the game attributed to some objects that can be manipulated by a well-placed whack with the Eveningstar. To keep levels at a reasonable length, most of the game's nine levels are extremely short (from a physical length perspective, not the time that it takes to beat them). It won't take long to beat the game, but completing all nine levels will restart players at the first level with their current score, encouraging endurance runs for those who wish to go for high scores.

Unfortunately, there is no online leaderboard support to speak of in Eveningstar, so players will be hard-pressed to find incentive to play through the game more than a couple times. The inclusion of easy, medium, and hard difficulty settings (the latter of which is a real challenge) was a wise move on the part of the developer that will add replay value to the game, but online leaderboards seem like an absolute must if Eveningstar is to totally connect with its audience. Even with the omission of leaderboards, Eveningstar is an attractive game that's well worth checking out.

App Store Link: Eveningstar, $1.99

TouchArcade Rating:

The latter half of 2009 saw a barrage of top-down dual-stick shooters emerge on the AppStore, though scarce few proved memorable or substantial. It is fortunate then that Guerilla Bob [AppStore] departs from the trend, providing both finely tuned action gameplay and all the bells and whistles expected of a polished title.

Guerilla Bob's bloody adventure begins with a forgettable story designed only to set the scene for the gun-toting action which follows. Fortunately, that action never lets up, periodically dispersing weapon upgrades and varied enemies in which to unleash them as you progress through the game's 7 missions. All up, these can be breezed through in well under an hour on easy mode, whilst the hard difficult may throw up the occasional challenge to lengthen that time as enemies fire more rapidly and in greater numbers. Though this may seem short, Guerilla Bob does a great job in keeping the linear gameplay fresh, unleashing enemies on you in a myriad of ways; be it from behind fortifications, on the banks of a river as you sail past, or mano a mano on a tight-rope bridge to name just a few.

From the onset Guerilla Bob's action feels graciously familiar, borrowing heavily from tried and true mechanics of past successes such as Minigore whilst wrapping the formula in a gorgeous middle eastern setting. In fact, it appears that sharing the same publisher has allowed a collaboration of sorts with the Minigore developers; a certain well-known protagonist featuring heavily in the loose Guerilla Bob storyline. More importantly however, the developers have ensured that Guerilla Bob handles just right, with the responsive thumb-sticks proving a boon in the enemy-laden Survival mode.

Where Guerilla Bob stands on its own two feet is in its terrific presentation. The middle eastern theme has been beautifully crafted, to the extent that you can make out various garments hanging from clothes lines as you pass underneath. Enemies are treated with the same careful brush and are introduced in a retro freeze frame as they are encountered to show off their detail. There is no problem at all telling the pot-wearing grunt from the explosive barrel-wielding suicide bombers. As each enemy requires a different strategy to counter, being able to tell them apart at a glance is a godsend. The presentation is rounded by Bob's amusing banter, his frequently corny but gruff commentary another throwback to Minigore. The rest of the sound is a mixed bag, with gun fire occasionally sounding more like popcorn. Fortunately the explosion and fire effects are spot on and the persistent jungle beat never overpowers the action.

If one had to nitpick, it's that perhaps the game is a little too short, relying squarely on its Survival Mode which is unlocked upon completion of the game to meter out replayability. And whilst the diversified levels are appreciated (particularly the night mission!); re-use of the same art assets throughout really leaves you pining for a fresh setting by the game's end, as the desert does start to feel monotonous. Fortunately, Survival Mode is challenging and frantic, and can very quickly amount to the bread and butter of the gameplay for those more competitively inclined.

It's worth noting too that Guerilla Bob is another game to feature Chillingo's very own Crystal SDK to provide many of the same features that we are accustomed to from the existing OpenFeint, Plus+ and AGON platforms. It appears to do the job just as competently and is integrated seamlessly with the game which is nice.

Guerilla Bob does a great job raising the bar for how a top-down dual-stick shooter should be packaged. It is both eye-catching and sassy in its presentation whilst still presenting a fun, non-stop desert rampage. Complaints about its length only accentuate how drawn into the gameplay one actually gets, as by the end of it you are already looking forward to a hopeful sequel.

Be sure to check out the launch trailer above and post your own impressions to our Guerilla Bob discussion thread, where people have been going crazy over the game since its release.

App Store Link: Guerilla Bob, $2.99

TouchArcade Rating:

Lazy 8 Studios (through Chillingo) has just released an iPhone version of their 3D mechanical puzzle game Cogs [App Store]. The iPhone release is an adaptation of their PC original, which is currently a finalist in the IGF 2010 Excellence in Design category.

Cogs is a mechanical puzzler that challenges you to bring to life a series of increasingly complex machines by way of arranging sets of tiles, gears, pipes, and the like in such a way as to connect varying energy sources to their ultimate outlets across 50 different 2.5D and 3D environments. And the whole thing is done up in a lovely steampunk motif (the best cogs are, of course, brass). There are carts to set rolling, balloons to inflate, helicopters to build, and rockets to launch. The sliding tile mechanic makes it feel something like Puzzle on (brass and mahogany) steroids.

Cogs presents you with three different modes of play. Inventor Mode, which is really the core gameplay mode, takes the player through all of the game's 50 puzzles, starting with the easy and moving towards the maniacal. The other two modes are Challenge modes that provide access to any puzzles unlocked in the Inventor Mode and are great for getting off a quick round or two on the go. Time Challenge presents any unlocked puzzle in an easier-to-solve configuration than Inventor mode…but each puzzle must be completed within 30 seconds. Move Challenge mode, in contrast, is all about taking time to decide the most efficient route to a puzzle's solution -- each puzzle must be solved in 10 moves in this mode.

Score rankings and achievements are tracked through Chillingo's own Crystal game network.

The game features a well-done touch system that takes the iPhone's screen out of your way and puts you in simple control of these seemingly real objects. It's a simple tap (or swipe) to move a tile -- and you can move more than one at a time by tapping on the first tile in a row to move. Two fingers on the screen allows for drag-based rotation of the various puzzle objects. Although the original is a PC title, Cogs was definitely meant for a touchscreen.

Cogs is addicting, brilliant, and frustrating. A casual puzzler, it is not. Oh, the game takes it easy on you for the first few puzzles in order to instill within you a false sense of mechanical mastery. Shortly thereafter, however, the puzzles get downright cruel. You'll discover that the next level, a mere flat board of pipe tiles, has pipe pieces on not one but both sides. Or try your hand at ringing an array of bells in perfect synchronicity with a wildly varying array of hammer cogs to deal with. It's a case of "must...defeat...this...game..." where one might not always call achieving victory "fun," but rather "necessary -- for sanity's sake." It can be maddening, but in the loveliest sort of way.

I've spent significant time with various pre-release builds of Cogs over the last few weeks and I can say that it's, at the moment, my favorite iPhone puzzler and one of my very favorite iPhone games in general. I really can't imagine much in the way of a negative that a puzzle fan could posit against this game. But if my praise doesn't convince, grab the free PC demo version and give it a try to get at least a feel for the game.

Cogs is being sold in an interesting way in that you pay as you go, buying incremental packs of ten levels for 99¢ a pop. For the initial 99¢ you get the first ten levels, which basically amounts to the puzzles that make up the Cogs tutorial. Beat that, and the next ten levels are 99¢, beat those and ten more are 99¢, and so on. If you buy the game and all four DLC packs, Cogs will run you $4.95 and should take around 10 hours to complete if you try to beat every challenge in the game.

App Store Link: Cogs, 99¢ (Plus 4 DLC Packs @ 99¢ each)

TouchArcade Rating: