Game developer 2XL Games recently teamed up with ESPN to release X Games SnoCross, a Winter X Games branded snowmobile racing game. Fans of 2XL ATV Offroad will find the game quite familiar as it seems much like a snowmobile reskin of that game.
X Games SnoCross offers 6 SnoCross race tracks, 2 freestyle tracks including daytime and nighttime events. Winter X Games branding comes in with the ability to play as medalists Levi LaVallee and Heath Frisby. The game comes with tricks buttons, local multi-player, career mode and arcade modes.
We've only spent a brief amount of time with it, but the game layout and feel is quite similar to 2XL ATV Offroad, a game we quite enjoyed. Early reactions have been limited though the the early feedback indicating the game has little new to offer for those who already own 2XL's other games -- aside, of course, from the Winter X Games touches.
It's no secret that the iPhone has a lot to offer retro gaming fans out there. One example is Manomio's C64 for iPhone [App Store], which lets gamers have some serious 8-bit fun on the go. But, while such games offer a great deal of white-knuckle action, they lack the online competitive aspect of modern XBLA and PSN titles.
Manomio is in the process of rectifying the situation.
Many of us remember playing C64 games, vying for the high score and undoubtedly reveling with our friends when we grabbed the top score in Uridium, Paradroid or whatever happened to be hot at the time. Perhaps you were the best at your school, club or even town....but, are you the best in the world? Now's your chance with Open Feint integration for select games.
In the forthcoming v1.4 update to C64 for iPhone, Manomio has begun integrating online leaderboards and achievements for the classic, C64 titles the emulator supports. To start, they're delivering the following enhancements to C64 favorites by way of OpenFeint integration:
Arctic Shipwreck
Leaderboard for high scores
Lemans
Leaderboard for high scores
Achievements
Lemans Bronze Medal (5 OF points): Scores 10000+
Lemans Silver Medal (8 OF points): Scores 25000+
Lemans Gold Medal (10 OF points): Scores 50000+
Lemans Elite Driver (20 OF points): Scores 100000+
Jupiter Lander
Leaderboard for high scores
Achievements
Jupiter Lander Trainee (5 OF points); Scores 10000+
Jupiter Lander Astronaut (10 OF points): Scores 75000+
Nebulus
Leaderboards for high scores
Planning to support achievements as you complete each tower (future update)
Uridium
Leaderboards for high scores
Paradroid
Leaderboards for high scores
Achievements
Command Cyborg 999 - Pwnd!
Achieved when you transfer / take control of the 999 unit, most powerful droid on the ship.
These enhancements really take these classic games well beyond their original incarnations. What's more, Manomio CTO Stuart Carnie assures us that, for the iPhone 3GS and 3G iPod touch, all games will run at a "buttery smooth" 50fps.
This really is a superb turn of events for retro gamers, and we're anxious to see what other enhancements to the these classics the studio will bring down the road.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [App Store] was quietly released into the App Store this evening. Chinatown Wars for the iPhone seems to lie somewhere in between the DS and PSP versions in regards to graphical quality, but as far as pure GTA gameplay, everything so far seems intact. (Complete with an awful lot of swearing.)
Much like other versions of the game, screenshots barely do it justice. Liberty City in motion on the iPhone is amazing, and all the jagged edges in the screenshots quickly fade away when you're racing down a street, under elevated train tracks, and through alleys as you escape the police. The realtime clock in-game also changes the lighting of the city, shifting from the orange glow of a sunset to the street lights turning on at night. It really looks awesome.
The basic premise of the game involves a man named Huang Lee, the son of a Triad gang boss who was recently sent to sleep with the fishes. He flies in to Liberty City with a heirloom sword his father won in a poker game, deciding to deliver it to his uncle. Of course things never go as planned, and not long after landing Huang finds himself in the middle of a gunfight and winds up getting kidnapped. After stealing the sword, the assailants assume Huang is dead, and looking to dispose of the body drive the car he's in off the side of a pier. In the same vein of other GTA games, story isn't really anything revolutionary, but it gets the job done.
Chinatown Wars is controlled very similar to Gameloft's Gangstar, with virtual buttons and a joystick that handle all the driving, running, shooting, and other activities in game. The iPhone port of Chinatown Wars retains the stylus minigames that filled the DS version, appearing in a little popups where you do things like tap to smash the window of the car you were trapped in at the beginning of the game, slide your finger around to turn a screwdriver to start a car you're stealing, etc.
When the Nintendo DS version was first released, I devoted hours to playing through the game. So far the iPhone port seems like a faithful reproduction with quite a few expletives. I obviously don't have the full text scripts of both games to compare, but everything I've come across so far has fit with what you would expect out of a GTA game, and it would appear that very little if anything was actually censored for the App Store release.
Chinatown Wars seems to be a complete GTA experience. You have your apartment that serves as your character's hub with a "Fruit" computer you can check emails on, a garage you can stash a car in, and when you're on the road there is a full GPS system with a map of Liberty City that you can plot your destination on to easily get from one side of the city to the other. There's all kinds of stat tracking that will tell you everything from how many bullets you've fired to how many fish you've fed and in-game options that offer all kinds of different tweaks to the interface and gameplay.
We weren't initially sure if this release was intentional, as we expected some amount of pre-release fanfare from Rockstar, but we are going to be working on a full review of this version of the game.
We're not entirely sure if this release was intentional, or another iTunes Connect fat-finger like Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II Discovery, but Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was released this evening in several European countries. We will have more details shortly, including a gameplay video.
For the time being, here are the screenshots from iTunes:
It's a bit of a late heads-up, but scrolling shooter fans should take advantage of Infinite Dreams' weekend giveaway of Sky Force [App Store] in celebration of the studio's iQuarium being in the App Store Top 100 list.
Sky Force is a traditional vertical arcade shooter in which you must battle across seven different levels, one of which features a boss-battle at the end. The game offers a variety of pickups and powerups along the way.
The game bears much similarity to Infinite Dreams' earlier iPhone release, Sky Force Reloaded, which we reviewed back in March. (Reloaded was, interestingly, released to the App Store before Sky Force.) The game delivers a solid arcade shooter feel superior to that of many similar titles that can be found in the App Store.
Originally a mobile title that launched to rave reviews, the iPhone version, normally priced at $1.99, is free for the duration of the weekend. Don't miss a freebie on a great iPhone vertical shooter experience.
The iPhone has attracted a notable number of Amiga game ports since the App Store went live. Worms, Pinball Dreams / Fantasies, Krypton Egg, Beneath a Steel Sky -- the list goes on. For those unaware, the Amiga was an extremely innovative platform, released in 1985 by Commodore, that saw rather limited success outside of Europe. It featured a lean yet powerful operating system and a great deal of custom hardware that made it the choice gaming platform of the day (for those that were aware of its existence). Despite Commodore's demise in 1994, a few stragglers still carry the Amiga torch.
In an App Store first, the iPhone is about to receive a port of a highly praised Amiga game...that never was.
In 1993, Iraqi developer Rabah Shihab, part of the Mesopotamia Team, began work on the Amiga title Babylonian Twins (with basically no budget), inspired by what he saw of other games' depiction of Iraq. As he explained in an interview with Amiga Games That Weren't,
...My real dedication for this theme came during the early nineties after I saw a computer game in which you control a warplane with the goal of bombing Iraq. Putting the bombing aside (I was in Baghdad during the first gulf war and I saw the human suffering that resulted from the real bombing ), I didn't like the way they depicted Iraq in the game, as a primitive and uncivilized place. I wanted to build a game that counter that image, a game that shows the vibrant history of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian Twins, the game takes you to different historical places, from Babylon to Assyria. We relied on authentic history books to design many of the graphics in the game.
Shihab was impressed by the smooth scrolling of Team 17's Amiga title Superfrog and set out to deliver similar visual finesse in his title. Another inspiration was Konami's MSX release Maze of Galious. The team released a very well-liked demo version of the game, but no full Amiga release ever came. And although he, later, targeted the Xbox Live Arcade, it's the iPhone that will at long last receive the final release. And, befitting the game's history, the full Amiga release is also imminent.
The forthcoming game is a puzzle platformer with an authentic historic feel and unique two-character gameplay. It features the puzzle elements of Maze of Galious with the multi-character control of Lost Vikings, along with the glass-smooth animation of Superfrog. The author indicates that the iPhone version features an original soundtrack, excellent graphics, and over a dozen large levels.
See the developer's trailer video for a look at the updated version.
UPDATE: In putting together this post, we sought further information from the developer, but he got back to us a bit after the post went live. Shihab wants to make sure readers are aware that the iPhone version of Babylonian Twins is an entirely new game that borrows no graphics or audio from the Amiga version. He assures us that all aspects of the game have been enhanced specifically for the iPhone by a dedicated team (and this time around on a healthy budget) over the course of the game's six-month development cycle.
We're quite anxious to get our hands on the final product and will bring further news of the iPhone release of Babylonian Twins as we get it. Stay tuned.
One of our very favorite iPhone games -- one that we come back to and actually play "for fun" (perish the thought!) -- is Rocketcat Games' Hook Champ [App Store], which we reviewed back in October. Â We discussed the game in detail with Rocketcat's own Kepa Auwae in TouchArcade Podcast #9. He gave us a look at what went into the making of the title and assured us that Rocketcat intends to keep the game very much alive down the road, with updates and enhancements.
Fans of the title will be pleased to hear that the first update since our discussion with Kepa (and the third update to the game since its release) has just hit the App Store.
Features as listed by the developer:
New challenge level set: The Forbidden Hats! Put your hooking skills to the test like never before!
New 'simple' ghost mode allows you to gauge your progress when racing a friend or competing against your own best time without being distracted by the in-game avatar.
New cosmetic-only DLC character: Bounty Hunter Zelle! Zelle is equal to Gunny in abilities, but has her own sense of style and new dialog. Zelle also features her own collection of incredibly fashionable hats!
Change: Rope lengths tweaked to create a smoother experience for beginning players.
Bugfix: Personal best run ghosts now saved even if ghost display is turned off.
Bugfix: The Addiction hat achievements and Celebrity local scores achievements should be properly awarded now.
Performance: Stunning performance enhancements across the board on both older model iPhone/iPod Touch devices and newer 3GS models!
Even more hats!
What's more, Rocketcat tells us that Update 4 should be available around the end of this month and will feature a number of new, more causal levels featuring John Gore of Minigore, who will shoot his enemies Bionic Commando-style. A new "Duel System" will also appear in the next update.
Have a look at the game in action. (Video is prior to Update 3)
As we said in our review, Hook Champ is an absolutely fantastic game that all fans of retro styled sidescrollers should own. If you've not added this one to your game library as yet, now's the perfect time. At least give the free, lite version [App Store] a swing.
And hats off to Rocketcat Games for keeping this one going strong.
There's no doubt that the App Store is absolutely loaded with different physics games, and many with very similar gameplay to Tumbledrop [App Store], but few are anywhere near as cute, colorful, or filled with rainbows for that matter.
Gameplay amounts to making your way through the 60 included levels (with more coming soon per the iTunes description) by tapping on screen to remove pieces in order to guide the star at the top of the pile safely to the ground-- Very similar to game modes in the Topple series, Finger Physics, and others.
What interested me in Tumbledrop was the forced delay in between removing the pieces that comprise the various structures of each level. Other games you could pretty easily cheese your way through the challenges by just quickly removing pieces as fast as possible while guiding the goal item back to the ground. In Tumbledrop, you have to plan your movements carefully as you can only remove one piece every three seconds.
Tumbledrop isn't particularly original, but if you're a fan of these types of games you likely have several similar ones on your phone already. If you want to give the game a try, there's a free version you can play in a web browser, you just have to download the Unity browser plugin. It's worth a look, if only to see how happy the star you're rescuing gets when its on the ground accompanied by the fanfare of rainbows and multi-colored confetti before progressing to the next level.
1337 Game Design has dropped the price of their fun ball roller Dark Nebula to free for the weekend. We reviewed this game back in October, and aside from the rather short campaign, there was a lot we loved about the game.
Dark Nebula is a tilt-controlled ball roller, but one that adopts an action/arcade vibe rather than the more tedious precision work found in many others. In fact, it feels so different, I'd hesitate to put it in the same genre. The game proceeds across 10 levels of action-packed gaming. Each level is very well designed with a variety of obstacles introduced along the way. Your tasks include the avoiding of spikes, triggering switches, avoiding laser fire, and more. The game has since been updated with calibration options, expert difficulty and global leaderboards.
We suspect they are gearing up for the next installment of levels, but you should definitely pick it up while its free this weekend.
Japanese publication Famitsu reveals that Namco will be bringing Taiko no Tatsujin to the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game has been called Taiko: Drum Master in the U.S. and is a rhythm/drumming game where players match up beats to on screen icons:
Symbols moving horizontally along a timeline show the player what to hit and when. Blue symbols indicate that the drum should be hit on the rim. Red symbols indicate that the face of the drum should be hit. The drum can be hit on the left and/or right side. The symbols can be either large or small. Large symbols indicate that the drum should be struck on both sides simultaneously , and small symbols indicate that the drum should be hit on either side. A large blue symbol thus means that the left and right rim should be hit at the same time.
According to the article, the iPhone version will have online/twitter support as well as multiple levels of difficulty. Here is a screenshot of the Japanese version:
The series has previously been ported to the Nintendo DS, PSP and Wii platforms, amongst others. The arcade version came with a physical drum and sticks to play with, while the DS and Wii versions had natural adaptations to the platform. The iPhone version will, of course, use fingers for the drumming. Here's a video of the game in action from the PS2 version:
When we took a look at the first Heavy Mach, we thought it was a fun side-scrolling shooter with room for improvement. Nearly a year later, developer IndieAn has released Heavy Mach 2 [App Store], a greatly enhanced sequel that abandons side-scrolling for a top down perspective among other changes and enhancements.
Gameplay in Heavy Mach 2 consists of taking various missions that seem to either have you killing things or collecting things, going out in to the battlefield to fight with your tank and returning with your spoils. As you earn credits and experience by defeating other tanks and completing missions, you can eventually buy tons of weaponry and different upgrades to your tank as you level up.
My favorite part of this game is how well the controls work. While the developers could have easily just used a typical virtual dual-stick control scheme, instead everything is done using different taps and drawing gestures on screen. To move your tank you can either tap on the battlefield, or you can draw a line with your finger for the tank to follow. Your tank will try to follow the exact course you plotted, so it will often get stuck if you try to make it cut corners or drive places it can't. This is easily solved by just tapping or drawing on the screen to move somewhere else.
Attacking enemies is as simple as tapping on them, and letting your weapons do the rest. Tapping on screen twice causes your tank to dash in that direction. There are buttons framing the screen to use special abilities (such as calling in air strikes) and changing weapons once you get more than the starting load out. The interface as well as the different tanks themselves and the terrain are extremely detailed, and the animations are great-- Much like the original.
The only thing that really seems to be missing in Heavy Mach 2 is any kind of plot to follow. The highly detailed scenery does a great job of setting the futuristic war-torn the mood of the game, and I just can't help but wonder why you're just randomly taking missions to destroy things. Maybe that's just me.
Heavy Mach 2 combines the RPG elements of an experience and leveling system along with seemingly endless equipment upgrade and customization options. The controls work well, and I've had a great time rampaging through the countryside blowing up every tank I come across. While the original Heavy Mach was a great sidescroller, the sequel has translated well to the overhead view along with improving nearly everything from the first game. If you're a fan of tank combat, you really should give Heavy Mach 2 a shot.
Lately, it's become quite popular amongst App Store developers to do ports of web-based flash games for the iPhone, and Chrome Wars Arena [App Store], playable here on Kongregate, is a continuation of that trend. Chrome Wars, which is described by developers Jaludo Group B.V. as a turn-based fighting game, has deep roots in the RPG genre. Its biggest appeal lies in its upgrade/level up system that allows players to improve and customize their bots as they battle their way through the 50 challengers in the "Chrome Wars Tournament."
After creating a custom bot, players will be begin a path that will take them through six arenas to battle their way (one enemy at a time) to the top. Each victory will earn your robot money and five skill points to spend on increasing total health, attack power, speed, etc. Losing a fight will provide a player with a bit of cash as well, so if players get stuck in a rut, they can always use that spare cash to buy any number of upgraded parts from the well-stocked in-game shop to tilt the odds in their favor.
One word of warning that I should probably give to those interested in the game is that you'll definitely need a comprehensive strategy when distributing those skill points. I spent many of the initial 20 points that come with new robots on upgrading my speed stat, and that really came back to bite me in the butt later when I had barely upgraded my health (called "grit" in the upgrade menu) or power. My robot's attacks were lightning fast but packed about as much punch as my grandma's left hook, so I wasn't very successful in most fights.
When not working their way through the 50 baddies in the arena mode of Chrome Wars, players can take the fight online against random opponents. It's best to fully complete the game's arena mode first (thereby getting all the upgrades you can) if you'd like to have any chance of success online, but it's also possible to play against people you know, if that tickles your fancy.
Fights in Chrome Wars Arena work pretty much exactly like they do in the flash version (albeit with some UI modifications so the game fits the device better), so if you'd like to check out the game for yourself, try it on Kongregate.com first. Slower-paced RPGs like Chrome Wars Arena aren't for everyone, but plenty of people (myself included) can appreciate some good old fashioned turn-based battles, so you don't have anything to lose by at least giving the game a shot and trying out that free flash version.
Gamevil, the company behind Zenonia and Hybrid: Eternal Whisper, have released a new teaser trailer for their upcoming action RPG Vanquish: The Oath of Brothers for the iPhone. The company has requested beta testers for final testing of the game.
We were actually able to get a brief sneak peek at the game at CES 2010, and see it for ourselves. The video only provides hints of the actual gameplay. Most striking about the game is the ink and wash graphics style which is present throughout.
The actual game is somewhat hard to describe but revolves around action/fighting in a scrolling environment. It shares a similar engine to Hybrid but is described as much more casual fighting/gaming experience.
It's hard to come up with much of an opinion of the gameplay with only brief hands on time with it, but what I took away most was that the game has a striking visual appearance and somewhat satisfying battle experience. Controls were typical joypad/button combos and involved riding a horse while dispatching enemies. Very brief battle clips are shown in the teaser video above. We'll have more information on this as it becomes available and as we are able to spend more time with it.
Polarbit has released a gameplay video from their upcoming Raging Thunder 2 racing game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Apparently undaunted by the massive competition in the racing space on the iPhone, the latest video shows a step up from their original Raging Thunder title that may have been the first racing game for the iPhone.
The original Raging Thunder was actually made available before the App Store launched for jailbroken phones, and finally became official in September, 2008. The franchise clearly falls in the arcade-side of racing games and with a focus on "speed, accessibility and fun". Based on the early video, it appears to hold true. In fact, it looks like it plays almost like a kart racer.
So, for those intimidated by the more hardcore racers, Raging Thunder 2 may be of interest. Of course, the App Store gaming has come a long way since the original was released, so we'll have to see how this one shapes up.
I have a love-hate affair with tile-sliding games, so when I first discovered TileStorm [App Store, I had mixed expectations. Generally, tile-sliding games are pretty difficult (and TileStorm is no different), but the satisfaction that one gets from completing a puzzle is worth the rough path there. TileStorm faithfully delivers this tried-and-true gameplay with some nice, clean 3D visuals, soothing audio, and complete option set.
There are 100 levels in TileStorm, all equally split up between industrial, Egyptian, medieval, and jungle environments, which serve as really nothing more than a set up for some variety in the level-to-level color palette. Your goal as the player is to create a path for "Eggbot the robot" to make his way to the level's exit. This is accomplished by figuring out a way to move around the different tiles that happen to be laid out in a jumbled fashion in select areas of each level. While most levels only require players to solve one puzzle to complete the level, some feature numerous puzzles with pieces that must be re-used.
There's quite a challenge to be had with many of the levels in TileStorm, but players can take their time while playing as their is no time limit or other way to "lose." The game does track your time in the top-right corner of the screen, but this feature is merely included as an option for those who want to beat their own best times. There are no online leaderboards for the game, but I feel that TileStorm gets a pass for excluding this otherwise necessary feature because of the nature of the game; once players memorize the solution for a puzzle improving their own times would become an exercises in finger dexterity, not actual skill, to see how quickly they could mindlessly repeat the motions required to solve them.
TileStorm features a clean 3D isometric perspective, and both the environments and Eggbot himself all look great. The few bits of animation that Eggbot does have all play out without a hitch, and tiles slide along without any lag when prompted with a swipe of the finger. I always appreciate the option to turn a game's audio and listen to my iPod library while playing, and the game offers that up as well. One feature that TileStorm managed to fit in that I enjoyed is an incredibly detailed stat counter for players. By selecting "Game Stats" from its options menu, players of TileStorm can see how many puzzles they've completed, how much time they've spent playing the game and even the number of times that the screen has been touched during play. I think that being able to check out such statistics is a lot of fun, and I'm glad that TileStorm's developer included this functionality.
While I've had a lot of fun with TileStorm, there are a few problems that need to be ironed out. The biggest issue that I have with the game is its level-unlocking system, which requires players to complete all of the levels in one area before proceeding on to the next-- Causing gameplay to come to a halt if you get stuck instead of skipping to a different level. Also, there are some interface issues such as requiring players to completely exit levels to restart them instead of simply having a button in a menu somewhere. However, the developer has been very active in our forums, and these fixes should be coming soon.
TileStorm is a fun, well-made puzzle game that offers up plenty of challenge and hours upon hours of gameplay for those who stick with it long enough to complete all 100 levels. While a few minor issues with the game may cause some annoyance, I don't believe that these problems will be nearly large enough to keep players from having a good time with it. This is not an easy game, but is definitely worth considering if you enjoy a good brain-teaser.
