Late last year Two Lives Left'sWheeler's Treasure [$4.99] rolled on to the App Store, and following a positive preview we took a closer look at the game and even discussed it on our podcast. In a nutshell, Wheeler's Treasure is a randomly generated survival platformer where you jump down a hill inside, on top of, or nearby a mysterious wheel. It's an odd game premise, but works surprisingly well especially with the whole slew of items that can be collected in game such as a grappling hook to latch on to the wheel or a magnet to suck up nearby coins among others. These items add a surprising amount of replay value to the game, as they're collected from chests which randomly appear in the game world at various intervals down the hill, requiring many play throughs since I doubt anyone is capable of collecting everything in one run.
Since we last looked at the game, it has had its controls revamped with a virtual joystick of sorts to control your jumping as seen in the above screenshot, and Wheeler's Treasure now comes with complete Retina Display support if you're playing on an iPhone 4. While 3D games like Real Racing [$4.99 / Free] look great on the Retina Display, I think hand drawn games like Wheeler's Treasure really look the best at high pixel densities.
If you've since forgotten about Wheeler's Treasure since its release nearly a year ago, this latest update is really worth reinstalling on your device, especially if you own an iPhone 4. Otherwise, if you're looking for a very unique pirate themed survival platformer, look no further than Wheeler's Treasure. For more information on the game, check out our review or stop by the thread in our forums.
Last month we reviewedInfinite Dreams'Let's Create! Pottery HD [$4.99] for the iPad and actually were fairly surprised with just how much fun it was. Judging by the comments we got on the review, there were more than a few people out there who were disappointed that the art of pottery had been simplified to the point of basic multi-touch gestures, but for someone like me Let's Create! Pottery HD was a great experience.
The iPhone version hit the App Store today, and aside from the smaller screen, Let's Create! Pottery retains everything that was good about the iPad game. We explained how everything goes together in the virtual pottery creation process in our review:
As you may suspect from the title of the game, the object of Let's create! Pottery HD is to create pottery. Tapping "create" on the main menu takes you to a spinning pottery wheel with a lump of clay on it that you then transform using your finger. Dragging up or down changes the height of your piece of pottery, while touching and dragging in or out changes the width or whatever section you're touching. I'm sure there will be some pottery wheel veterans who don't like how dumbed down this all is, as you never need to deal with adding more clay, maintaining any kind of balance, or the million other things that can lead to all-out pottery disaster.
Once you're satisfied with the shape of your creation, you fire it up in the kiln. After that's complete, you're able to paint it with all kinds of different colored paints and "brushes" which are basically just stamp tools of pre-made stripes and other designs. Following that, you then add your masterpiece to your collection, at which point you can either keep it there to bring up later (and send emails including an image of it) or you can sell your creation at auction. Using the coins you earn from selling your in-game artwork you can then buy more paints and brushes to make even more diverse pottery. ...Read More
It's a little disappointing that Let's Create! Pottery HD didn't just get an update to make it universal because the game seems to be a much better overall experience on a larger screen. If you have the choice, I'd get the HD version but the iPhone game is an excellent substitute if you have yet to purchase an iPad and want to make some virtual pottery.
For fans of the excellent iPhone port of Street Fighter IV, you'll be happy to know that a new character is making her way to the roster. Capcom has just announced that Crimson Viper, who first made her debut as one of the four brand new characters in the Street Fighter IV franchise rebirth on arcade machines and home consoles, will be the latest addition to the iPhone conversion via a free update. This follows the previous update from Capcom that added Cammy and Zangief as playable characters, which we covered back in June, bringing the roster total to ten combatants.
Here are a couple of shots of C. Viper showing off her special moves (click to enlarge):
If you've been following along since the release of Street Fighter IV for iPhone, then you will remember that Capcom announced the addition of Cammy back in April, and didn't announce Zangief until over a month later. This leads me to believe that another character will be announced in the near future for this forthcoming update. This has not been confirmed in any way and is purely speculation on my part, but as a rabid Street Fighter fan I can only hope. Plus, it just seems to make sense to add two characters at a time, brining the total to a nice even twelve.
In the meantime, enjoy some video of C. Viper in action on the iPhone:
If you have yet to check out Street Fighter IV on the iPhone, take a look at our full review from March. No firm release date has been set for this new update other than “soon”, but we'll keep you posted if Capcom happens to narrow it down (or announce any additional characters).
Back before John Kooistra was allowing players to beat the crap out of boxes in Fastar! [99¢], he was bringing clever game concepts to an App Store that was still in its infancy. His first iPhone game, Blue Defense! [$1.99], felt like a mixture of Robotron and Missile Command. Waves of enemies descended upon a planet full of people, and you were left to fend them off with a never ending supply of cannon fire. Your weapon was constantly shooting, and you tilted the device to spray bullets at the incoming threat. What really made Blue Defense! unique was how the view would dynamically zoom in and out, and change from portrait to landscape on the fly with each progressive wave. There was an elegant simplicity to the concept and visuals, and the title really showed what kind of games were possible with Apple's device. If there is such thing as an App Store classic, then Blue Defense! certainly qualifies as one.
Now, John's new development studio Cat in a Box Games has sent word of a sequel to Blue Defense! titled Blue Defense: Second Wave. While appearing to use the same core concept of the original game, Blue Defense: Second Wave adds some new gameplay mechanics to the mix. Here is a rundown of features from the developer:
Same great gameplay as Blue Defense, but with some new twists!
Four different modes, ranging from just seconds to infinite progression!
All-new Gauntlet mode changes your strategy completely!
Classic accelerometer controls alongside new multitouch targeting!
A new "Planet Cannon" weapon, use it only in emergencies!
Red and Green forces are both attacking, with over a dozen all-new enemies!
64 all-new levels to beat individually, or in the classic Infinite mode!
Global leaderboards, 74 different lists to compete on!
Over 200 awards to obtain
Universal app
Retina resolution support
Runs smooth and fast even on the oldest devices!
In addition to the announcement of this sequel, the suite of previous titles from John Kooistra and Cat in a Box have all been updated in recent weeks. Blue Defense! [$1.99], Blue Attack! [$1.99], and Red Conquest! [$3.99] have all received iOS4 compatibility and other minor fixes, with the latter two titles also receiving Retina Display support. A release date and price have yet to be set for Blue Defense: Second Wave, but expect more on this title soon.
The Madden series hardly needs an introduction, as football player turned coach turned commentator John Madden has had his name on football games for the better part of 20 years now. On home consoles, it has become tradition for EA to release a new Madden game each year with updated rosters, a few new features, and other various tweaks. As of tonight, the second yearly installment of the Madden series has arrived for the iPhone.
Last year we took a close look at Madden NFL 10 and thought it was a really great football game for the iPhone. Madden '10 came loaded with all the licensed players, stadiums, logos, and everything else you'd expect of a Madden game along with game modes ranging from single exhibition games to full seasons. The two hip new features of Madden NFL 10 for the iPhone were hot routes allowing players to draw on the screen to control players, and "action control time" which switched the game to slow motion mode allowing for precise maneuvers with the virtual controls.
There wasn't much to complain about with last year's Madden, which really left me wondering what EA was going to include in this year's release to up the ante. The preview we got revealed substantial graphical upgrades including Retina Display support, but it wasn't until I got to spend more time with the game today that I realized just how much more fun the other new features made playing Madden NFL 11.
In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not a sports person by any means. I don't remember the last time I watched anything more than the Super Bowl on TV, and the only sporting events I've attended have been the result of friends with extra tickets. I play sports games, but generally gravitate towards arcade style sports games like Homerun Battle 3D [$4.99 / Free], or sports games that have RPG elements such as Baseball Superstars 2010 [$4.99 / Free].
I mention this because I generally never really got into a Madden game, or really any full football game. The weak link for me always came in choosing from an endless array of both offensive and defensive plays, with each yearly iteration of football game boasting even more plays to choose from. I don't know enough about the strategy of football plays to have ever felt like I was making a wise decision, and when it got down to it, play selection just always seemed like a needless interruption every few seconds while playing the game.
GameFlow changes all of this, and I really can't overstate how awesome a feature it actually is. Using some new AI algorithm likely designed by a team of people who know way more about football than I ever care to, Madden 11's GameFlow will intelligently chooses plays for you. It is absolutely insane how much this changes both the feel and the pace of the game. Using GameFlow, endless submenus of plays are a thing of the past. Instead, you just play football. The plays it selects work fairly well too, or at least, much better than my typical choice of plays which usually alternate between the hail mary and the fake field goal kick-- both favorites of mine.
What's also shocking is how much this actually speeds up playing the game. You can tap the screen to skip through the extra animations, victory dances, and other junk and play through a whole football game in what barely seems like any time at all. Of course, if you are the kind of person who knows exactly what every play does, all you have to do is flip GameFlow to off and you have complete control of each and every play.
The hot routes functionality from last year has been expanded, and at any point during the game you can pause the action and draw paths for your players. If you're playing offense and do this, you can save those routes as an audible, or if you're playing defense you can just send your players wherever you want. The whole system works very well, and by drawing lines you can send dispatch players to man to man duty, follow the ball, or really anything else. This really makes defense a lot more fun because you can now actually sensibly direct your team around instead of just tabbing in between players and chasing after whoever has the ball. Check out my top secret LOL offense:
As mentioned already, the graphics of Madden NFL 11 look fantastic. The stadium crowd has actual depth now, and they even wave around signs for the home team. The included weather effects look good, and overall it seems like all the player models and animations are more detailed. Every texture in game also seems to have been substantially improved, making going back and forth between 10 and 11 seem fairly drastic.
Madden 11 also is host to some other noticeable tweaks over last year's as well such as controls that feel a little better and a spruced up interface. There's an in-game store which currently is home to a free roster update, but seems like it might be used for future DLC . Finally, Madden NFL 11 behaves beautifully as an iPhone game, gracefully saving your game and resuming quickly when you load it again.
Like last year, the inevitable comparison between Gameloft's NFL 11 [$6.99] and Madden NFL 11 will likely take place in our forums for months to come, but in my opinion, Madden wins by a landslide. Gameloft's offering seems to run at a higher frame rate, but Madden looks better overall-- rspecially when it comes to how the crowd and stadiums are rendered. Madden NFL 11 has local bluetooth multiplayer while NFL 11 is single player only, and the commentary in Madden seems less repetitive than Gameloft's. Where Madden really wins though is in the extra features. With how much I've fallen in love with GameFlow I can hardly bring myself to deal with NFL 11's play selection, and Madden's total defensive control makes playing defense in NFL 11 flat out boring in comparison.
At the end of the day, people who like Madden games likely don't need this review, or anything more than the iTunes link to download the game for that matter. Who I really expect to sway into checking out Madden NFL 11 are the casual sports fans, or people like me, who are vaguely interested in sports games but found the various technicalities of football games to generally be annoying. GameFlow fixes all this, and I can hardly believe that I spent the majority of my day today playing Madden 11 on my iPhone-- not because I was trying to power through it to write a review, but because I was actually really enjoying a football game for the first time since Mutant League Football on the Sega Genesis.
The iPad and iPhone versions are essentially the same aside from the price difference and UI tweaks to make the controls more comfortable for playing on the iPad. The iPhone version is workable with pixel doubling, and the only thing you're really going to be missing out on is the upcoming "Vintage Voltage Football" mode which is basically just Super Shock Football [$1.99 / Free] with Madden graphics.
Three upcoming games are picking up steam in our upcoming iPhone games forum that are likely all worth keeping an eye out for, especially if you like dashing from monsters, avoiding falling junk, and/or matching skulls.
Monster Dash - The latest game from Halfbrick Studios, the guys behind Blast Off [99¢], Fruit Ninja [99¢], and most recently Fruit Ninja HD [$4.99] for the iPad. According to beta tester da shiz wiz 19 on our forums, "It's like the guy from Canabalt goes homicidal...against monsters," and that is a mash up I can get behind. Monster Dash is scheduled for release on August 19th.
Check out this absolutely fantastic trailer for the game:
The Incident - Coming potentially very soon from Big Bucket Software is The Incident, a pixel-art powered climbing and avoidance game. In the game, you basically just try to stay on top of a massive pile of junk falling from the sky. The Incident has already been submitted, and should be approved any day now.
Take a look at the gameplay trailer to see this odd gameplay mechanic in motion:
Skull Smasher for the iPad - Even though I'm still anxiously awaiting Galactic Keep: Dice Battles, I'm glad to see Gilded Skull Games working on another title for the iPhone. Skull Smasher seems to have the same fantastic art style of both the upcoming Galactic Keep and the already released Imp or Oaf? [99¢], only this time applied to a match three.
Gameplay is explained by the developer in the thread and involves tapping groups of similar skulls to smash them with boss skulls that take damage for being near other matches. Apparently Skull Smasher will have a sizable amount of depth to it with power-ups, player health, leveling, and even a story line. Gilded Skull plans on releasing a series of these bite sized games, which I'm totally looking forward to.
Last month we reported the announcement that DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu is coming to the iPhone this summer from legendary shmup developer Cave, who have already released one of their classic arcade shooters to the App Store, the excellent Espgaluda II [$8.99/Lite]. Fans of bullet hell shooters were frothing at the mouth over the news, but unfortunately the trailer that came along with the announcement served as only a tease, and didn't expose much in the way of gameplay or information.
Now a few weeks later, Cave has released a brand new gameplay trailer for the game, now called Dodonpachi Resurrection, along with some screenshots and info about the enhancements to this iPhone port. Much like Espgaluda II, Dodonpachi Resurrection will feature a mode that is practically identical to its arcade counterpart as well as an iPhone specific mode. This new iPhone mode features a new scoring system and is tailored to gaming on the go. In addition to these two modes a third practice mode will be included.
The screen on the left is from Arcade mode, and the one on the right is from iPhone Mode and shows the Hyper Cannon at work (click to enlarge):
Based on the trailer for Dodonpachi Resurrection, fans of the genre should be in for the same frantic gameplay that Cave games are known for – hundreds of bullets flying onscreen, humongous enemies, and devastating super weapons. As such, just like Espgaluda II, the game will be exclusive to 3rd generation iPod touches (32 and 64 gig), iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 4, and iPad. Also, brand new music has been composed exclusively for this iPhone release by notable Japanese composers Kenichi Maeyamata and Shoichiro Hirata.
Another noteworthy aspect to Dodonpachi Resurrection is that the iPhone version will mark the first time the game will have appeared anywhere other than the arcade. Espgaluda II was ported from arcade to the Xbox 360 prior to coming to the iPhone, and it says a lot to the overwhelming popularity of the iOS platform and how well suited a game like this is to the touch screen that it is appearing here first. Espgaluda II absolutely nailed the controls, and set the benchmark for every shmup to come out for the iPhone since. If they can pull off those same tight controls for Dodonpachi Resurrection, which hardcore Cave fans consider a superior series to Espgaluda, then we should be in for quite a treat when the game is finally released.
The price for Dodonpachi Resurrection has not been set, and Cave still hasn't narrowed down the release past “Summer 2010”, but rest assured that as soon as we hear anything more we'll be the first to let you know. In the meantime, drop by the thread in our upcoming games section and join in on the discussion.
Frogatto is an open source platforming game available on the Mac/PC that was released to the App Store last month. We took a close look at the game when it came out, and though our impressions were mostly positive a couple of issues stuck out in an otherwise excellent retro-styled platformer, most notably the somewhat finicky controls and a lack of a save state when exiting the game. Both of these issues have been resolved in a new update, and Frogatto now features much tighter controls (especially when navigating underwater portions) and the game saves right where you left off when interrupted. In addition, other tweaks and optimizations have been included, as detailed in the update notes:
Significantly improved controls, both functionally and graphically.
Fixed auto-saving on iOS4 where multitasking is supported.
Fixed bug where a dialog could repeat forever.
Fixed crash in world map when you hold down while entering it.
Added music and sound volume controls to pause screen.
Added half-hearts.
Minor level changes.
Updated music.
If any of these issues have held you back in purchasing Frogatto before, now is the time to grab the game as not only have these problems been addressed in this update but the game is also on sale for 99¢ for a limited time (down from $4.99). I've played through this updated version and can confirm that it's quite a big improvement from the initial release, and Frogatto stands as one of the better platform games available for the iPhone.
The Hero places you in the role of a superhero tasked with preventing crime and catastrophic events from befalling various cities in the world, all while maintaining a positive public image and keeping collateral damage to a minimum. You control your hero with a virtual stick that allows you to fly in any direction through the air, with a button for speeding your flight as you rush to save citizens from the many hazards in each city. These can be robbers in the street, bombs or fires in the buildings, rescuing falling babies, and of course defeating zombies. When not saving the citizens, you're dishing out high fives to them as you fly by, which increases your various special move gauges and promotes fame and good will.
A new update to The Hero adds 3 mini-games to the 15 level campaign and 4 level survival mode, as well as minor artwork/storyline tweaks and a revamped scoring system:
A Fully revised gameplay and scoring model
3 Brand New minigames: Asteroids, Bomb Run, High-Fiver
Levels are now packed with even more action
New super bonus from high five streaks
The Hero was released back in March, and we really liked it in our full review, but for some reason it has flown under the radar since then and we haven't heard much of it in the past few months. Hopefully this new update will rekindle interest in this underrated title, and to help with that The Hero is also on sale for a limited time for 99¢ (down from $1.99). If you missed it the first time around, it's definitely worth checking out with the addition of more content and this temporary price drop.
Shortly after the iPad arrived, Gameprom treated iPad gamers to Pinball HD [App Store], a collection of their excellent stand-alone iPhone pinball titles -- Wild West Pinball [$.99], The Deep Pinball [$.99], and Jungle Style Pinball [$.99] -- all in one high resolution, iPad application. We found the title easy to recommend, and we weren't the only ones; Pinball HD was a WWDC 2010 Apple Design Award winner.
When the iPhone 4 was unveiled, sporting its high resolution Retina display, we hoped to see the same fine collection adapted to suit Apple's new iOS flagship. And, today, we're happy to report that Pinball HD 4 iPhone [link] has arrived and is now available for download in the App Store.
Pinball HD 4 iPhone delivers everything that the iPad's Pinball HD does, beautifully rendered on the iPhone 4's Retina display with a sharpness that almost makes your eyes bleed. (Though, the iPhone 3GS and 3G iPod touch are supported at their native resolution, as well.) And we're happy to see that Gameprom added the fixed, portrait table view mode that we requested in our April look at the iPad version. (This mode sits in addition to the floating, portrait view mode and the fixed, landscape mode.)
Like its forerunner, Pinball HD features split-screen, tap paddle controls, WiFi and Bluetooth multiplayer, online score tracking, and support for 3D anaglyph (red/blue, etc.) glasses rendering. And you get all that for buck less than the iPad version. Any pinball fan with an iPhone 4 (or a 3GS if you're new to the series) needs to get this game on their device.
Retro overlord Stuart Carnie of Manomio contacted Touch Arcade to let us know that after months of work, the C64 for iPhonev1.7 update will shortly be arriving in the App Store. This is a major update that brings numerous enhancements as well as a nice list of additional games available through the app's integrated game store.
Control Improvements:
Corrected dead area at side of screen in landscape, rendering controls unresponsive for a small strip
New fixed-mode joystick in landscape mode, automatically selected for specific games
Option on the settings screen to force fixed-mode joystick in landscape mode for all games
File-based disk support for multi-disk games. Does not work for those games requiring true 1541 support. (No virtual swapping of disks)
Option to adjust dead zone / sensitivity of joystick
Updates Fixes:
Upgraded to OpenFeint 2.5
Removed bottom bar in full-screen landscape to prevent obscuring screen in games like Wizball
Reimplementation of control layout system, to support the complex controls scenarios for games like The Last Ninja and Druid
Borders are correctly drawn in landscape (Wizball looks better now)
Hi-res icons added for retina and iPad displays so C64 looks better on your home screen
Usability Improvements:
Display OpenFeint notifications at top rather than bottom
Added grouping to In App Store to separate downloaded / purchased titles
Stuart indicates that, despite this major update, C64 is not the studio's only focus, by any means. Their brainteaser-style game Nerve Jangler-- a NinjaDoodle license that's been played over 22 million times -- will be complete and out the door in the next few weeks, and then it's all focus on the Amiga games. We hope to have some early ad hoc builds of a few Amiga classic nicely packaged up for the iPhone in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
Backflip Studios' CEO Julian Farrior let us know that his studio is handing out the neon glow of Tunnel Shoot [App Store] for free, today only. The game is a universal application that renders at full screen resolution on all iOS devices. We took a close look at the title when it went live in late June.
Tunnel Shoot is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a tunnel shooter in the vein of N2O: Nitrous Oxide for the Playstation (and is somewhat reminiscent of the iPhone's own Boost 3D). The goal of the game is to survive as long as possible, travelling down a neon-vector tunnel while dodging obstacles, blasting enemies, and collecting green gems for points. You're placed in tilt-control of your craft, with a tap / hold mechanic for firing your blaster and bombs.
Your ship's blasters, when first activated, fire bursts of three bolts per shot, but as you hold down the fire "button," that soon drops to two bolts, and then to just a stream of single bolts. Let up on the button and your blasters quickly recharge and it's back to three bolts per shot. (Read: don't just lay on the fire button, folks.) You start off with one bomb which, when activated, flies down the tunnel destroying all enemies in its path. More are accumulated along the way. Your damage bar replenishes over time, and fairly quickly. A nice touch is that when you get blown up, the force of the explosion sends a destructive shockwave down the tunnel before you respawn.
We very much liked what we saw in Tunnel Shoot and recommended it as an instant buy for anyone who calls themself a shooter fan. If you haven't grabbed it yet, don't miss today's offer.
In a surprising move, 2K Games has dropped the price of Civilization Revolution from $6.99 to Free for one day. We looked at the game back in August when it was first released for the iPhone:
Civilization Revolution is the latest iteration of Sid Meier's dynasty of games where the player is simply tasked with the goal of building an empire to stand the test of time. Like previous Civilization games, Revolution is a turn-based strategy game where you take command of a primitive civilization from their meager beginnings to complete world domination. Civilization Revolution was originally released in 2008 to strongly positive reviews.
Early last month we first heard that developer Yoot Saito had plans to bring The Tower to the iPad. Saito is a Japanese game designer who is responsible for both SimTower and Yoot Tower (also known as The Tower II in Japan) as well as Seaman, a virtual pet game of sorts that focused on voice recognition for the Sega Dreamcast. The Tower games focus on building a skyscraper with all sorts of different facilities in it while providing as good of a living experience for the residents inside of it as possible. If you've never played the game before, think of it basically as a vertical Sim City.
The Tower for iPad [¥450] was just released on the Japanese App Store, and there are plans for an international English version soon. Judging by the below screenshots, quite a bit of the game is in Japanese. You could jump through some hoops to register a Japanese App Store account and figure out how to fund it with yen, but unless you speak some Japanese you're likely going to be fairly lost when it comes to actually playing.
As a huge fan of the original SimTower, I really can't wait for The Tower to get an English translation and show up for download in the US App Store. If you played the original game, it's really not hard to imagine how well it would work with touch controls, as evident from the following gameplay video:
I've sent off an email to the developers to determine how soon they expect the English version to be released, and of course when it finally appears expect to see a full review.
Late last year we reviewedDark Nebula [99¢], a game that called itself a "skill-based action game" that we described as "short but sweet." While the gameplay mechanic of utilizing the tilt controls to move a rolling ball around have been used since the earliest App Store games, the original Dark Nebula really took this to the next level-- so much so that it was difficult to even group it in the same genre as other ball rollers on the App Store.
In the original Dark Nebula you controlled a ball through 10 levels that vary widely with all sorts of different obstacles including spikes, lasers, switches that needed to be tripped, and others. The graphics of the original were fantastic, and while there wasn't a ton of content in the game, what was there was top notch. The entire experience was good enough that I played through the first Dark Nebula at least twice, if not more.
The sequel, Dark Nebula - Episode Two [99¢] arrived on the App Store this afternoon, and is even better than the first installment. Episode 2 sports nearly twice as many levels across a variety of environments along with a new combat system that allows for boss fights. Yes, boss fights in a ball roller.
Aside from the usual dodging and weaving, in Dark Nebula - Episode Two, you can roll over pads which will equip your orb with a colored ball that orbits around it. Initially you use this to destroy matching colored objects in the game world to open gates, but it doesn't take long until you're fighting red swirling blades of death. A few levels later and Dark Nebula - Episode Two pits you against a giant boss with blades that wind up and go in to a massive slicing frenzy which you need to take down in a similar fashion by smashing it with your orbiting weaponry.
The production quality of Episode Two is absolutely outstanding. The visuals are remarkable, and incredibly detailed environments pair perfectly with all kinds of flourishes that flow over the screen when you restore your shield, reach a checkpoint, or do other things.
Just like the original, playing through Dark Nebula - Episode Two won't take very long, and if you're determined you will be able to complete the entire game in one sitting. But what's so refreshing about the game is the high quality of the levels. Unlike some games where you feel like you are playing the same level over and over again, the level design in Dark Nebula remains fresh throughout.
To add replay value, the developers have added in seamless online leaderboards to track your performance on each level, along with a ranking system and an expert mode. It's as easy to recommend Episode Two as it was to recommend the original Dark Nebula. Reactions on our forums have been remarkably positive, and overall it's really hard to imagine ball rolling games to get better than this-- That is, until the inevitable release of Dark Nebula - Episode Three.
TechCrunch posted today about 11 new startup companies to be funded by TechStars, a group that has provided seed money and mentorship for various startup companies for the last four years. Most of these companies seem to lead towards different web services, but GearBox is a "smart toy company" who have created a robotic ball which can be controlled via a smartphone using a simple API.
So basically how HTC/Android/Apple make smart phones, we make smart toys. Our first smart toy is a robotic ball that you can move by tilting your phone in the direction you want the ball to roll. We are then leveraging the connectivity and computing power of the phone to create a fully interactive experience for the user. Our first app for the ball is Sumo. I throw my ball on a table, you throws yours on the table and then we can try and sumo each others ball off the table. However, while our physical balls are moving there is also an onscreen component with online stats, profiles, damage, powerups and other aspects of gameplay that aren’t possible with a regular remote control toy. For instance, when the balls collide they can sustain “damage” and roll slower or I could get a powerup to reverse your controls for a few seconds.
Other examples cited were a golf game where you swipe to "hit" the ball, curling where you roll the ball then "brush" on the screen, or even just control the ball to harass your cat. Currently all of the app development is being done on Android, but according to the guys at GearBox, iPhone development is totally possible and they're just using Android for prototyping. The Smart Ball is still in prototype phases itself, and it's hard to say when it will be available for sale. Either way, it seems that the Parrot AR.Drone isn't going to be the only toy in town to be controlled via a smartphone.
Late last year Two Lives Left's Wheeler's Treasure [$4.99] rolled on to the App Store, and following a positive preview we took a closer look at the game and even discussed it on our podcast. In a nutshell, Wheeler's Treasure is a randomly generated survival platformer where you jump down a hill inside, on top of, or nearby a mysterious wheel. It's an odd game premise, but works surprisingly well especially with the whole slew of items that can be collected in game such as a grappling hook to latch on to the wheel or a magnet to suck up nearby coins among others. These items add a surprising amount of replay value to the game, as they're collected from chests which randomly appear in the game world at various intervals down the hill, requiring many play throughs since I doubt anyone is capable of collecting everything in one run.
Last month 
Late last year 
