Yesterday we caught wind of a set of Gundam games and apps courtesy of Japanese video game magazine Famitsu. All of these games are currently playable at the Tokyo Game Show, and our friends over at AppBank have posted hands-on videos. We still don't know much about these games, or if they'll even be released in English on the US App Store, but quite a few people are excited for them judging by the comments from yesterday.
Gundam Fighting Spirit - A fighting game where players are pit against other mobile suits.
Gundam G Generation Touch - A strategy RPG with what sounds like tons of content with additional suits to unlock.
NDAM Tool Box - A Gundam-themed dashboard-like app lets you launch things like Safari, Mail, and other apps.
The Gundam suite of games and apps is scheduled for release this winter, but as I already mentioned, we still haven't heard whether this will be a Japanese-only release or not.
Capcom's Street Fighter IV [$9.99] not only is proving to be a fantastic fighter for the iPhone, but also one of the best supported games we've seen from big-name developers who historically haven't had that great of a track record when it comes to free content updates. We loved the game when it was first released, as evident in our review. Since then, both Cammy and Zangief have been added, and this most recent update includes E.Honda and C.Viper. Each come with two costumes, their own associated set of moves, and combos to master. Also included are some new costumes for Ryu and Chun-Li available via in-app purchase.
If you haven't picked up Street Fighter IV yet, now is a fantastic time to get on board. Capcom did an amazing job adapting the controls to the touchscreen of the iPhone, the graphics look great, and you really can't argue about four additional characters being added since release for free. Hopefully Capcom keeps the update train rolling.
A few days ago we were surprised to see Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge [99¢] dropped to a dollar, but today the original The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition [99¢] as well as Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge for iPad [$4.99] saw similar price drops. In the past we've posted at length about Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2 and both games are about as classic as you can get when it comes to point and click adventures.
The Monkey Island series follows the exploits of Guybrush Threepwood, a white blouse wearing wannabe pirate with a name that is nearly constantly mispronounced by every character you come across in both games. The ghost pirate LeChuck causes problems in both game, and vanquishing him both times requires a ridiculous adventure filled with hilarious writing, a great soundtrack, and complete voiceovers. If you have an iPad, I highly recommend picking up the iPad version since it looks fabulous on the device-- and it even comes with director commentary.
You really can't go wrong with both of the iPhone games for 99¢ a pop. Both work fine on the iPad pixel doubled, and while they don't have Retina Display resolution graphics, they're still a ton of fun to play through on the iPhone and each version of the game comes with an associated lite if you'd like to try before you buy.
Update: Scratch that bit about Retina Display graphics, Monkey Island 2 was updated mere moments ago to include high resolution graphics. If you've got an iPhone 4 or new iPod touch, this is 99¢ you really should spend.
Just a little more than a year ago, indie developer Krabl released a quirky puzzle platforming game with interesting mechanics titled Ynth [$2.99]. You controlled a tiny bug who rotated boxes from the inside in order to traverse a hazardous marshland. In our review of Ynth, we noted that the game was clever with cute graphics and plenty of content, but the trial and error factor of completing levels could be really frustrating. Now, Krabl and FDG Entertainment have collaborated to bring a sequel to the original game called Beyond Ynth [$3.99/HD]. It still retains some of the frustration factors of the first game but also expands on it in every way and ends up being a fun puzzler with a tremendous amount of content.
Beyond Ynth uses beautiful graphics that are optimized for Retina Display. An illustrated story with voiceovers explains the tale of the main character, the tiny bug named Kribl, as you progress through the game. Beyond Ynth takes place in four distinct environments - forest, volcanic, desert, and snow. Each environment has its own hazard to deal with, like getting burned by the sun in the desert or freezing in the snow when you are out of a box for too long. There are 80 levels to play through across each of the environments, accessed from an overhead map. The levels are more openly accessible with at least a few available to play at any given time, rather than the linear progression found in the original Ynth.
The core gameplay remains the same in Beyond Ynth. Kribl will start at one side of a level and use a series of boxes to get to the exit on the other side. Boxes come in various shapes and sizes, and once you crawl inside of one you can tilt the box over by pushing on one of the inner walls. You'll “roll” these boxes by tilting them over and over to progress through the level. The puzzle element in Beyond Ynth comes from being able to align the openings of the boxes together so you can make your way from one to the other without accidentally getting yourself stuck. You must also think ahead in order to properly deal with the environmental hazards and other various objects present in each of the levels.
The entire game is incredibly unique and each level is cleverly designed from beginning to end. As mentioned, however, it can be pretty tough figuring out how to advance past a certain part, and the instant death from touching a hazard that causes you to restart the level can wear pretty thin after a while. There's nothing more frustrating than meticulously working through a level only to suddenly die near the end and have to start over. Moving in the boxes can be slow-going, and it sometimes feels overly tedious to play through the same sections over and over just to get to the point you were previously stuck at. Each level also has a set of diamonds that can be collected in order to earn a medal, and some of these diamonds seem nearly impossible to collect which adds greatly to the challenge.
While this may sound pretty negative, I actually really like Beyond Ynth a lot. The artistic style and story are really charming and you can't help but appreciate how cleverly designed some of the levels are. For me, it's best taken in small doses though, and if I'm feeling frustrated with a certain level I'll try a different one or take a break from the game altogether. With 80 levels to play through plus the added replayability of obtaining gold medals for each one, Beyond Ynth will keep you busy for a long time. There's also achievements and leaderboards tracked through OpenFeint, with Game Center integration set to appear with the game's first update. There are already a lot of players enjoying the game in our forums, so if you like puzzle or platforming games and have a fair amount of patience, Beyond Ynth is worth taking a look at and is definitely a huge leap forward from the original game.
This morning we got some news from Gameloft on some highly anticipated upcoming titles of theirs. First off, they revealed that Dungeon Hunter 2 will have both Game Center support as well as Gameloft Live to do matchmaking, making it one of the first games that is going to include multiple matchmaking services to be backwards compatible with device that don't support Game Center. A new trailer was also released that looks awesome and is a must-see for anyone interested in dungeon crawlers:
In other news, Gangstar: Miami Vindication now has a release date-- we'll be driving around Miami on our iPhones on September 23rd. Also, Gameloft has told us there will be 75 missions included across an open world "amazing reconstruction" of Miami which will feature varied environments such as a downtown area, swamps, beaches, and others. The law enforcement AI is also apparently significantly improved, a welcome change from the previous Gangstar. Miami Vindication will also sport a varied soundtrack of all kinds of licensed tracks, and a storyline written by one of the writers of the TV show The Wire.
Needless to say, these are two games we're really excited to try out. As soon as we get a chance to get our hands on them, we'll have reviews of both.
A game developed by us in tandem with MGM Studios based on the cult classic ARMY OF DARKNESS movie will launch early in 2011 . . . deadites beware!
That's right! Army of Darkness the game is coming to the App Store in 2011.
Now, I know what you're thinking... "a movie franchise game?" But Backflip's Julian Farrior says the whole team is "insanely excited" about it and it's collectively the team's favorite movie. So, we're going to mark this one as "can't wait" for now.
The game will include all the favorite quotes from the movie and is described as a hybrid castle/tower defense inspired game. Your job is to protect the Necrinomicon from the Deadites with the help of your boomstick, chainsaw and more.
Here's a great collection of many of the quotes, probably not entirely safe for work:
If you haven't seen Army of Darkness, well, you've got time before the expected "early 2011" release.
Backflip Studios has released their latest free game to the App Store. The release of Buganoids follows their other summer launches including Tunnel Shoot, Graffiti Ball, and Ninjump. We profiled Backflip Studios' success in the App Store back at WWDC. As of this writing, they report that their games have seen over 48 million downloads with up to 2 million unique players playing each day.
For this latest App Store entry, Backflip enlisted the help of a developer we're very familiar with around here - Dan Bliss. Bliss' App Store career [iTunes link] has been pretty much exclusively dedicated to retro-inspired games, so his involvement made a lot of sense for Buganoids.
The developers accurately describe Buganoids as "Tempest" meets "Centipede" with a dash of "Gyruss" thrown in. The game is a circumferential shooter where your goal is to destroy the spawning bugs coming up from the planet. Your only ability is to shoot down -- straight into the planet. So, in order to adjust your aim, you need to walk around the planet. If a bug makes its way to the surface, you're going to have to shoot form the opposite side to take it out. It's a pretty simply mechanic that offers a surprising amount of depth.
The game offers five different weapons across seven different globes and includes 3 levels of difficulty. Like all of Backflip's free games, they are ad-supported by offer the customer the ability to buy-out of the ads.
There's both an iPhone and iPad version of the game, and they are both free. So, no reason not to try it out.
If the Sims is your thing, EA has just launched the latest Sims sequel onto the App Store. Sims 3 Ambitions offers a number of long requested new Sim-capabilities to the App Store game. The latest version actually lets you build your own house or business as well as have babies.
The new features, as listed by EA, include:
Career mode - For the first time ever on iPhone & iPod touch, turn your Sims’ hobbies into fulfilling jobs. Will your Sim become a Firefighter? Rock Star? Artist? Teacher? Chef? Sports Star? Get down to business with new career-oriented goals, mini-games, outfits, and locations. Follow your Sims to work and see them get happier as they make their dreams come true.
Build Mode - Think big with the improved and expanded Build Mode feature. Resize, add, or delete rooms, floors, walls, doors, and windows as you make a new home for your success-driven Sim. Buy and sell furniture and objects. And now you can also build workplaces like a Bistro, a Preschool, or a Night Club for your musical Sim to rock.
Babies - Your most requested feature is here! For the first time on iPhone & iPod touch, your Sims can have babies! Feed them, play with them, and put them to bed! Watch Sims babies become Sims toddlers. Take them to the park, play hide-and-seek, or give them a little cuddle. Having Sims children changes everything!
Import and Export - Bring in your favorite Sims from The Sims™ 3 and The Sims™ 3 World Adventures for iPhone & iPod touch. Give them the chance to pursue their dreams, too!
Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu recently revealed two upcoming games based on the Gundam universe. The article itself is entirely in Japanese, but forum member Rakanishu890 offers a translation. Four apps in total are coming, two simple utility apps which are skinned to match the Gundam art style that launch other iPhone apps along with the strategy RPG Gundam G Generation Touch and Gundam Fighting Spirit which as the title may hint is a fighting game.
In Gundam G Generation Touch players will be able to collect, build, and train various mobile suits. Classic suits will be included as well as 100 others with additional suits available via in-app purchase. Gundam Fighting Spirit will pit suit-equipped players against enemies who are also piloting their own mobile suits. There's even local Bluetooth multiplayer support.
All of these Gundam apps are scheduled for release sometime this winter and we hope to get more details on them as soon as we can. In the meantime, check out the massive gallery of screenshots over on Famitsu.
As usual, there is always tons to be excited for as an iOS gamer, with new games released on a daily basis and upcoming games to look forward to. Here are four games I'm looking forward to trying out, each with their own gameplay trailer.
Danger Derby - There have been quite a few top-down racers released both for the iPhone and iPad, but Danger Derby spices things up by adding a host of obstacles to deal with. Multiple game modes, cars, and upgrades sweeten the deal even further.
People Bucket - Games like No, Human have proven that you can take a simple physics gameplay mechanic and turn it in to an incredibly elegant game. I'm not sure if that's going to be the case with People Bucket or not, but the trailer has definitely piqued my interest.
Silverfish - Chaotic Box posted about this game in our forums, and while they're not revealing much about the actual gameplay yet, I've had fun with their other games so it would stand to reason that Silverfish would be enjoyable as well. Either way, the graphics look pretty cool.
Moral Decay - While I'm not entirely sure that the gameplay of Moral Decay will be half as good as the sky high novelty value of its premise, the Mega Man 2 homage at the beginning of the trailer totally sold me on it.
All four of these games are coming soon, and we'll give them each a look once they're finally released. For more upcoming games, check out both our upcoming iPhone games and upcoming iPad games forums.
According to IGN, Adult Swim's amazingly popular Robot Unicorn Attack [99¢] is about to be joined by an evil App Store twin. Robot Unicorn Attack Heavy Metal is abandoning the colorful platforms, rainbows, and sparkles for pentagrams, fire, and brimstone. Per IGN, the gameplay is identical aside from graphical changes, and one much more severe change...
The fantastic soundtrack consisting of Erasure's Always has been replaced by the equally over the top Battlefield by Blind Guardian. Adult Swim usually doesn't go public with their games until their release is imminent, so it wouldn't suprise me to see Robot Unicorn Attack Heavy Metal pop up on the App Store any day now. In the meantime, Robot Unicorn Attack is still on sale for 99¢, and I really recommend checking it out or at least trying the free flash version if nothing else.
If you've taken even a cursory glance at the top paid apps charts in the last six months, then you've no doubt noticed a game called Angry Birds at or around the #1 position. The venerable physics puzzler has you launching birds into precariously built structures in order to collapse them onto the pigs that dwell inside. Angry Birds practically needs no introduction, as between the lite and paid versions it has been downloaded more than 11 million times since debuting on the App Store last December. It has also been one of the most well supported games following release, as Angry Birds has received a number of free content updates during its lifespan adding tons of new levels and new functionality.
During this successful run and its many content updates, Angry Birds has always steadfastly remained at 99¢. Plenty of gamers including ourselves have commented that Angry Birds is simply the best value for the money on the App Store. That's all well and good for the players, but how does developer Rovio expect to continue to offer high quality updates to Angry Birds with an inevitable decline in the charts looming and while maintaining the game's 99¢ price point? The answer is the Mighty Eagle. The Mighty Eagle will be a special bird that you can call upon to instantly complete a level that you might be stuck on. You will be able to buy a can of sardines via in-app purchase and use those to lure the Mighty Eagle into a level and crush those pesky pigs on your behalf.
This video doesn't demonstrate any in-game footage of the Mighty Eagle in action, but serves as more of a teaser and is pretty funny in its own right:
In-app purchases have been met with both positive and negative criticism from gamers before, but seeing as Angry Birds offers a tremendous amount of gameplay for your dollar I can't see too many people being upset with another avenue to give Rovio some more money for their efforts. Some concerns have risen about players being able to buy their way onto leaderboards by abusing this IAP, but the Mighty Eagle function is limited to prevent this. Once a player uses one to pass a level, they aren't allowed to use another one until they have gone back and beaten the level they skipped on their own. If anything, it just offers a way for people who get overly frustrated being stuck at a certain point in the game to progress and then give the level a shot later on.
Pricing and a release date for the Mighty Eagle haven't been confirmed, but we'll keep you posted as we learn more about this latest direction for Angry Birds as well as the long awaited Game Center update to the game.
Early last year Namco released Time Crisis Strike [$4.99], an iPhone version of their Time Crisis series that has been extremely popular in arcades and on home consoles for the past decade and a half. The game is an on-rails shooter that utilizes a unique (at the time) cover mechanic that allows you to lie in wait for the most opportune time to pop out and take shots at the enemy. The Time Crisis games are certainly fun, but the iPhone version lost much of the magic in its transition to the touch screen. What really makes Time Crisis enjoyable is actually aiming a light gun at the screen and reacting quickly to shoot at enemies while strategically taking cover when you needed to by stepping down on a pedal built into the arcade cabinet. Lacking these two key elements, Time Crisis Strike lost a lot of its appeal on the iPhone, which we explained in our review.
Earlier tonight, Namco released a sequel to the iPhone version titled Time Crisis 2nd Strike [$9.99]. After briefly checking out the game, it offers much of the same gameplay that was in the first. The graphics and framerate are much better this time around, but not Retina Display optimized. One really nice change is the option to disable tilting the device to duck and reload, instead using a button in either of the lower corners of the screen. Also, there are multiple weapons to use including a pistol, machine gun, shotgun and grenade launcher. This mixture of weapons is a welcome change and adds a bit of variety to the simplistic tap-to-shoot mechanic. There is a prologue level plus 3 episodes to play through, all tied together with some fairly decent cutscenes and story.
If you enjoyed the first Time Crisis Strike, then you should enjoy Time Crisis 2nd Strike as well. It's definitely an improvement over the original, although it still feels lacking compared to other platforms that feature physical guns and foot pedals to engage in the action. Impressions are being collected in our forums, and if you're interested in a new entry in the Time Crisis saga for your iPhone you can pick up Time Crisis 2nd Strike in the App Store right now.
We've been following the development of NimbleBit'sPocket Frogs [Free] for quite some time now; the thread in our upcoming games forum has even grown to over 800 posts. Beta testers loved the game and the excitement surrounding a freemium game that was designed from the ground up to provide a great gameplay experience without making gamers feel nickel and dimed seemed contagious. Having spent a considerable amount of time with pre-release builds of the game and the final pre-release copy of the game, and Pocket Frogs really is something that everyone should try-- even if you've shied away from freemium games in the past.
In Pocket Frogs, as the title may suggest, you are responsible for breeding, growing, and maintaining a habitat (or eventually, multiple habitats) of cute little frogs. The process goes a little something like this: Tapping a frog brings up a menu, initially you have the option to move the frog to another habitat, take the frog out to the pond, or just sell the frog for coins. Usually you will want to take frogs to the pond, which consists of a quasi-exploration mini-game where you hop around on lily pads somewhat similar to Dizzypad [$1.99 / HD]. After eating a certain number of dragon flies in the pond, the frog is tamed. A tamed frog when tapped in its habitat has three additional options. You can breed it (more on that later). You can catalog it, which allows you to essentially re-order a frog in the in-game mail if you sell it or need another one. Finally, you can gift the frog to any friend via the Plus+ network.
At any time you can take any of your frogs back to the pond, which will allow them to fill up on dragonflies to increase their happiness. In addition, you will randomly stumble across presents which could be an additional frog, new backgrounds or objects for your habitat, coins, or the various in-game consumables. Also, there are other frogs bouncing about the pond which you will run in to, and when you jump to the same lilly pad you have the option to breed with said frog.
Initially, breeding frogs seems fairly simple but as you progress further in to the game it actually gets quite complex. Basically, frogs have three traits: Their base color, their pattern color, and the pattern itself. When you breed two frogs you're shown the possible outcome, which could be up to 8 different combinations of colors and patterns. You can either breed frogs just for the fun of creating new frogs with cool colors and patterns, or you can shoot for the various goals in the game.
Pocket Frogs is host to tons of different awards (each coming with their own experience point bonus) which involve breeding to collect a certain number of specific frogs of various colors. You can either complete these challenges entirely on your own by breeding your existing frogs and collecting new ones either by buying them with coins at the in-game store, finding them in the pond, or breeding with other frogs in the pond. Alternatively, if you have other friends playing the game, they can send you the frogs you're missing (or the ones you need to breed with) via an in-game mail system. In addition to awards, there are also frog requests that you can take which act like an in-game quest system that require a specific breed of frog. These are completed the same way.
It seems like people are (understandably) skeptical about any freemium game, as often whatever in-app purchase fuels the game doesn't feel optional at all. Pocket Frogs has the best balance of free gameplay and in-app purchases of any free game I've played both on the App Store and in other freemium markets such as Facebook games. Like any freemium game, Pocket Frogs is monetized both through iAds that appear in a few of the submenus (but never in any actual gameplay screens) as well as buying in-game consumables.
When you breed frogs, little frog eggs appear in your nursery. Different frogs take different amounts of time to hatch, and you can either wait for them or spend growth potions to get them to hatch instantly. Frogs that are bought from the frog shop or sent to you by friends appear in your in-game inbox, and take time to be delivered. Just like the frog eggs, you can either wait, or spend stamps to have them delivered instantly. Also, if you mail frogs to friends, that costs stamps too.
The cool part is that you can always take your frogs out to the pond, and if you hop around enough, you can find both stamps and growth potions randomly. Unlike nearly every other freemium game I've played, it doesn't seem like you're ever at a point where there is nothing to do in Pocket Frogs. Even if your nursery is full and you can't breed anymore and your mailbox is full preventing you from getting any goodies and you're waiting on the timers of frog eggs and mail, you can still jump around collecting coins. Overall the entire experience doesn't seem to be anywhere near as limited as most freemium games if you decide to not pay, you just won't get the instant gratification of seeing what your eggs hatch in to.
Pocket Frogs is a fantastic game loaded with cute graphics, tons of content, and a free/paid system that is masterfully balanced to truly feel optional instead of required like many freemium games. Even if cute graphics aren't your thing, the depth of the game is extremely impressive and breeding the rarest frogs could serve as a great goal for the hardcore. I've barely scratched the surface of what there is to do in Pocket Frogs in this review, but if all this sounds even remotely interesting you really should give this game a try. To sweeten the deal, it even comes loaded with Retina Display graphics and is universal to play on either the iPhone or the iPad. If you've already got the game and are looking to friends to play with, stop by this thread on our forums.
Xpect Games is nearing the release of their upcoming post-apocalyptic racer, Race After 1977 which has been in development since January of 2009. The game takes place after a massive nuclear war of sorts, leaving the world ravaged and the survivors just racing their pieced together racecars around Mad Max style. Xpect has built a completely customized 3D engine for the game with physics tweaked for realistic driving across all different types of terrain, jumps, ramps, and other obstacles as you fight your way to the finish line. (Or, as realistic as any post-apocalyptic racer can get I suppose.)
The developers have released two videos of the game, the first of which is a teaser trailer seen below:
The second video is a hands-on gameplay trailer which shows several different cars being driven around a few different tracks. The game is being played on an iPhone 3GS in this video, so presumably the framerate should be even smoother on the iPhone 4 and new iPod touch:
Race After 1977 is being released this fall, and as someone who loved Mad Max, the Fallout series, and really anything to do with crazy post-apocalyptic stuff, I can't wait.
A 
Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu 
We've been following the development of 
