Capcom's Street Fighter IV [$9.99] is the gift that keeps on giving. First they released Zangief and Cammy as a free update, and later they added both E.Honda and C.Viper. We just got word from Capcom that this update gravy train isn't stopping anytime soon, as they just announced Sagat will be the next fighter included in the game. Also, since they've been releasing these updates with not one but two fighters each, it wouldn't surprise me at all for them to announce another character soon.

In addition, the way local multiplayer works is being tweaked. From the sounds of it, whenever two devices are running the game with Bluetooth enabled as soon as they get in range of each other they will auto-connect for some multiplayer action. We thought Street Fighter IV was great in our review and it's really hard to not get behind a game that has seen so many substantial free updates with even more on the way.

The Jace Hall Show is a show about video games starring, oddly enough, Jace Hall. Jace had had his hands on a number of video games and television shows, most recently acting as executive producer for ABC's V. If you were curious what Id's Mutant Bash TV actually looks like in motion after reading our exclusive hands-on preview last week, here's your chance:

They only managed to get a few brief moments of gameplay footage, but you can at least get a glimpse of what the game is like in motion. Mutant Bash TV is scheduled for release at the end of this month, priced at $1.99 for the iPad and devices that come packed with a Retina Display and 99¢ for older "standard definition" iPhones and iPod touches.

There are many gamers, myself included, who would consider the 16-bit era to be a golden age of role-playing games. The wonderful pixel art, unforgettable music, memorable characters and stories – there are literally too many fantastic 16-bit RPGs to name them all. Even todays most high-tech, cutscene-laden, 200 hour epics fail to capture my attention like a traditional top-down 2D RPG. I get the feeling the folks at SRRN Games feel the same way, as that is undoubtedly what prompted them to create Ash [$4.99], a brand new iOS exclusive RPG that is a great homage to the classics of the 16-bit era. Ash tells an interesting story which is complemented by its simplistic but satisfying gameplay. It's rough around the edges in certain areas, but overall Ash delivers an experience that shouldn't be missed by RPG fans.

Unlike some RPGs, the dialogue in Ash is well written and holds your attention in a way that compels you to keep progressing. So many times I've started an RPG only to eventually become frustrated with a convoluted, boring story to the point that I never finish the game. This isn't the case with Ash. Sure, there are many clichés in the story here but that's also kind of the point, as this is an homage to classic RPGs. The dialogue has pop, and all of the characters are well developed with distinct personalities, even the most nonessential ones. It may not win the award of greatest story ever told, but amongst the heap of cookie cutter storylines from most RPGs Ash definitely stands out.

Graphically, Ash achieves what it sets out to do which is emulate a 16-bit style RPG. It's created using licensed assets from RPG Maker software, so it does have a kind of generic look to it, but it's charming nonetheless. What I really appreciate are the subtle details in Ash. There are many interactive objects in the game world, and I've come across all kinds of neat items and gold just by exploring boxes, barrels, and other nooks and crannies. I also really like how a character's text bubble will dim once you've spoken to them, and will light up again when they have something different to say. It's a small touch, but it helps avoid wasting time reading repeated dialogue from characters. Also worth noting is the excellent music in Ash. While not retro-inspired like the rest of the game, it's an appropriately moody score that adds tremendously to the atmosphere.

Like most RPGs of this kind, you'll travel an overworld map visiting various towns and dungeons. Combat happen randomly in dungeons and the overworld, but not too frequently as to be annoying. When you do encounter an enemy, the view switches to a first-person perspective with 2D illustrated sprites. A simple skill system will unlock new abilities for your character as you level up, and a decent assortment of armor and weaponry can be equipped. The character progression is really straightforward, and far from deep, so if that is a huge part of what appeals to you in an RPG you'll find Ash lacking in this regard. The combat is fun though, and the menu UI works really well and makes it easy to always keep up with your party.

My major complaint with Ash is that it's a pretty hard game in the early goings. There were some points where I just hit a wall trying to defeat a particularly difficult enemy. Ash is far from being a grind-fest, but there are definitely times where you'll need to level up in order to progress past a certain part. Luckily the difficulty levels out as the game goes on, but in the beginning prepare to have your mettle tested. There is a nice strategy guide available on the SRRN website to help you get started if you want a leg up. Another negative in Ash is the slightly funky character control. You press left, right, above or below the actual onscreen character in order to move in said direction. This effectively turns the entire screen into one big d-pad, which sounds like a good idea, but in practice it's actually pretty awkward. You get used to it eventually and it's only mildly bothersome, but I would have much preferred some additional options like a regular onscreen d-pad.

Even with its minor faults, Ash is one of the better RPGs available in the App Store. It tells an engrossing story with characters that are full of personality and emotion. It's definitely not the most complex game when it comes to character progression, but the gameplay is fun and a nice change from some of the more convoluted RPGs out there. You can expect to get about 15 hours of gameplay from Ash, or more if you explore every nook and cranny like I did, and the ending definitely leaves open the possibility of a sequel. Players in our forums have been loving the game, and the developers have also joined the discussion and are actively addressing user feedback. If you grew up in the era of 16-bit RPGs and are looking for a new adventure to tackle, or if you're just in the mood to hear a wonderful tale, then make sure to give Ash a look.

We've made a number of posts over the last few months regarding a fan-created, iPad version of Sierra's graphical point-and-click adventure Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter. What makes the effort particularly interesting is the fact that the game is entirely web-based. Load the URL in Mobile Safari, save a bookmark to your Home Screen and -- voila -- you're a tap away from playing a true classic on a device more suited to the style of gameplay than anything that was available back in 1986.

We're happy to report that developer Martin Kool has completed his effort and shared the public URL where iPad-toting space cadets the world around can get started on this excellent adventure. The game can be found right here:

http://ipad.sarien.net

Our observations of a pre-release version stand true for the final product. You tap the home screen icon and the game loads completely seamlessly without any additional work. It's crazy just how fast and easy the whole process is. The first time you load it up, there's a small load time, but as soon as mobile Safari starts caching parts of the game it's just like playing the actual computer game. There's even multiple save slots, and accessing them is as simple as rotating the iPad in to portrait mode.

The game features the same, relatively blocky graphics as the original. And, to the retro gaming fan in me, that's a splendid thing -- but getting them to render unaltered in the iPad's browser was no walk in the park, it turns out.

The only complain I could offer is the lack of sound effects that were present in the original -- a challenge of in-browser, HTML / Javascript gaming that the developer indicates he hasn't addressed "yet." I spent a brief period with Space Quest in days long past, and I can say that what the developer has delivered here, despite that complaint, is all that I remember and then some. Now, I confess that I'm more of a King's Quest man at heart, but that's no matter; Martin recently indicated that once Space Quest was complete, he's moving on to The Black Cauldron, King's Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry.

I would encourage any iPad gamers who counts themselves among fans of adventure to give Space Quest for the iPad a try.

Fans of the effort should visit Sarien.net's forum where Martin is soliciting opinions on an official iPad adventure series as released by Sierra.

Indie development house Spaces of Play has just released their platform puzzle game Spirits for iPad [App Store. Spirits, which won the Best Aesthetics award at this year's IndieCade, is a lovely title featuring Lemmings-like gameplay, but with some notably different elements that help the game deliver a unique experience all its own.

In Spirits, you are faced with a series of hand-drawn platform levels, most of them larger than the iPad's screen (pinch, zoom, swipe to scroll). There are 40 in all. Into each of these environments march a crowd of cute, little spirits who want nothing more than to make it into the swirl found at the far end of each level. But that journey is quite a rocky road.

The landscapes in question are filled with drops, blocks, spikes, and other such dangers. To negotiate the landscapes, you must tap on a spirit to command it to perform an action -- just like in Lemmings. You can dig and climb -- just like in Lemmings. But, you can also blow and block wind -- not at all like in Lemmings. You see, the swirl that your spirits must reach hangs in mid air. To bridge this gap, and to add complexity to the maps in general, there is a strong wind blowing along a particular course through each landscape, indicated by a lazily flowing swarm of particle effects. Part of getting through each level is tapping into this passing breeze -- or creating your own, where needed. It's a mechanic that adds a whole new dimension to the Lemmings formula and is a big part of what makes Spirits special.

Each level has a set number of spirits that must be saved in order to call the round a success. Several sleeping flowers are arranged about each level, and must be brought to life by direct contact or a tap on a spirit flying by, overhead. The game has a kind of "zen" feel about it that the developer calls "poetic," which is enhanced by the orchestral audio tracks that accompany the gameplay. It's, at the same time, engrossing, relaxing, and a bit hectic.

Your success in the game is tracked on a global ranking board that keeps you aware of where you stand, as compared to the other Spirits jockeys around the world.

While there are already a few Lemmings clones in the App Store, Spirits for iPad stands apart. The overall design -- graphics, animation, audio tracks -- as well as the whimsical element of soaring on the wind, really make this an enjoyable title to experience. The game feels an excellent fit for the iPad, and an iPhone version will follow, shortly.

There are a number of titles out there that really ooze that special "indie magic," and Spirits for iPad is one of them.

Crescent Moon and Galoobeth's upcoming epic RPG Aralon: Sword & Shadow hardly needs an introduction anymore. We've posted about the amazing history of the game in a previous post, later we provided some comparison screenshots that perfectly illustrated the insane transformation that Aralon was experiencing as the Crescent Moon team completely reworked every graphical asset of Galoobeth's initial game world. The most startling comparison came from the latest trailer which when viewed side by side by the original trailer generated enough interest to even get reposted on Gizmodo and countless other blogs (seriously, check it out if you haven't).

Today Crescent Moon sent us a full ten minutes of gameplay, narrated by their own Josh Presseisen, which covers everything from fighting to completing quests, and even eating some magical food you cooked to make your character levitate:

In addition, we've also got a ton of new details about the game. Aralon is going to be available for both the iPhone and the iPad, with a customized UI for each. It's also going to come bundled with Game Center for a slew of achievements and even some online leaderboards. It's even going to support fast-app switching and the Retina Display on the iPhone 4 and 4th generation iPod touch.

Aralon will have over 30 hours of gameplay with over 60 unique locations to visit, along with 3 playable races (human, elves, and trolls). Playable classes include warriors, rogues, rangers, and mages, with each playing differently thanks to a unique set of special powers and abilities for each. Over 500 items in all are packed in the game to tweak out your characters'a appearance and arsenal. Oh, and if you like mounts, there's 4 of those to acquire and ride around. The depth of Aralon sounds crazy, as other things they've mentioned existing in this game include gathering skills, faction systems, dual wielding, lock picking, your own in-game house (complete with fields to farm) and all kinds of other crazy stuff.

It gets even better though, Crescent Moon plans on providing a bunch of post-launch support such as even more character customization and quests. A few of the examples they've given include quests to gain an animal companion to assist you for the rest of the game, and even helping to take down a massive orc fortress. Also, the housing and farming system is going to get fleshed out even further.

Aralon: Sword & Shadow will be released by Christmas, and we're still waiting to hear final pricing details.

If you liked Eliminate [Free] but wish it had more, um, Star Wars, you're in luck assuming you're a "Canadian" or an actual Canadian. Similar to all recent ngmoco freemium releases, Star Wars: Imperial Academy is currently only available on the Canadian App Store, and should filter out to other markets as soon as they make sure everything is working properly.

The game was just released mere moments ago, and judging by the feature list on the ngmoco web site, Star Wars: Imperial Academy just seems to be Eliminate with a heavy layer of Star Wars plastered on top. If you enjoyed fragging on the go in Eliminate, Imperial Academy seems worth checking out.

We'll post more details on the game once we spend more time with it and it's finally available somewhere other than Canada.

App Store Link Star Wars: Imperial Academy, Free [Canada Only]

One of the worst things about being an American is that you're unequipped to talk soccer. There's a total of 12 outliers in the US who actually understand the sport, but I'm pretty sure every single one of these freaks play for Team USA. I mention this because I wanted to give you some perspective for this post, which from this point forward, will be all about Championship Manager 2011 [$6.99] and, as a result, my inability to bring up something insightful about the simulation games'… footy-ness? Awesomeness? Something-ness?

Right, so, Championship Manager 2011 for the iPhone (a soccer game) has received what appears to be a solid update that should make the, uh, Champ Man simulation experience that much more fluid and smooth. According to the notes, this update has fixed several crash bugs, as well as the iPad movie issues that have been locking people out of games. It also improves something called "Player Position effect." Now, apparently, playing a soccer player out of soccer position in a game of soccer will "have a greater impact on the team's overall [soccer] performance." Lastly, soccer scorelines have been refined to produce more authentic soccer game results.

Whew. Glad that's over. Eli and I flipped a coin this afternoon. He called both sides, which left it up to me to write this post. We here at TouchArcade treasure our international audience, so we thought you'd like to know, at least, that this game has been updated. Sorry for being stupid Americans, but if you really dig soccer as much as FOX News says you do, well, certainly this post served a purpose!

Everyone around these parts has to be familiar with lite versions by now. These stripped down free versions of games allow us gamers to get a taste of what's in store for us if we buy the full game without costing us a cent. More often than not these lite versions just get released and are mostly forgotten aside from potentially implementing a major feature of two that might be important for players to sample. Gamevil just did something we don't see very often and updated their lite version of Baseball Superstars [Free] to include the full game with a few ads here and there.

The Baseball Superstars series are a great mixture of arcade style baseball with light RPG elements that really seem to make the game appeal to both fans of baseball and people who don't normally care about sports games in the slightest. Training up your players is a surprising amount of fun, and the sprite-based graphics are an awesome blast from the past for anyone who was around for all the great 16 bit baseball games from days of yore. The ads aren't really that obnoxious either.

I'm a huge fan of the Baseball Superstars series, and if you like this game, you really should consider picking up the most recent iteration of the game. Baseball Superstars 2011 [$4.99] is a great upgrade that we liked a lot in our review. But if you just want to dabble in training your super batters or pitchers, this freebie more than does the trick.

This has been quite a week for iPhone game releases and news, and somehow in the process Adult Swim's new Amateur Surgeon 2 [99¢] got lost in the shuffle of typewriters, triplicate carbon copies, punch cards, and tape reels that make up the TouchArcade mobile command center. Not anymore, as after spending some quality time with the game this afternoon, the latest installment of the Amateur Surgeon series is an effortless recommendation to anyone with a dark sense of humor and a taste for gore.

Much like the original Amateur Surgeon [$2.99 / Lite / HD], the sequel follows the adventures of Alan Probe and his series of gruesome surgeries that involve advanced surgical instruments such as a pizza cutter, a car battery, a dust buster, and even a zippo lighter. Similar to the Trauma Center series for the Nintendo Wii and DS, you slowly learn to use all of these tools to successfully complete medical procedures on a number of different patients. We liked the first one a lot, and really my only complaint was that sometimes things were a little too difficult due to the inherent lack of precision from my fat fingers on the iPhone screen. A new pinch to zoom feature completely alleviates this, allowing you to make precise incisions with your rusty pizza cutter. (Or, as precise as a pizza cutter could be, I suppose.)

All in all, Amateur Surgeon 2 is a fantastic sequel. They took everything that was good about the original, tweaked the things that weren't, made the game perform a little better, and loaded it with new content. If you're on the fence, the lite version of the first Amateur Surgeon is a good place to start, as the gameplay is similar enough to give you a fantastic idea of what you're getting involved with in the sequel.

Despite the overwhelming popularity of the genre, I fully admit I've never been able to get in to most hunting games. The ones I've played on the iPhone either seem entirely too basic, diluting the sport of hunting down to basic wild animal shooting galleries with a few gimmicks or attempting to recreate arcade light gun style gameplay by tapping on the screen. In Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2011 [$4.99], Activision takes some steps in the right direction to make a hunting game that's more entertaining than most by injecting a single player adventure campaign in to the mix.

Instead of just choosing a location, selecting your hunting load out, and just shooting whatever animals are on the horizon, Dangerous Hunts has you actively stalking prey. Also, more often than not, your prey is also stalking you. It sounds like the workings of a real cool game, as you're left wandering about the African wilderness after animals that are just as interested in killing you as you are in killing them. Unfortunately, the cool premise is about all there is to it.

(more...)

Engine licensor and creator Unity has surely put a hop in Dicework Games and Crescent Moon's step of late. Yesterday, Unity's own award show wrapped up and the two studios' turn-based RPG, Rimelands: Hammer of Thor [$.99], took home the award for Best Mobile Game, according to Develop. This is a huge deal; the engine is widely used by solid App Store developers for their own financially successful and technically solid games.

And if you want, you can check out this award-winner for a lower-than-normal price. For a limited time, you can grab Rimelands for a measly $.99 instead of the usual $4.99. That's not a bad slash considering the well-earned acclaim that we can substantiate with our own review.

In other related news, developer Crescent Moon is working on a universal update for Rimelands that is set to hit before this Christmas. We spoke with Crescent's Josh Presseisen this morning about the update. Here's a list of what he said to expect, and do note that it favors those who have finished the game:

• Native resolution support, including higher-resolution images for cut-scenes.
• Bug fixes and AI tweaks
• New end game content, including more challenging bosses, art, and a dungeon that resets itself after you finish it.

The cost of this update is, of course, free.

Last month we posted about The Quadsphere's FMX Riders, a really cool looking freestyle motocross game with a load of features:

FMX Riders will come packed with four game modes: Race, freestyle, time attack, and hotlap time attack. There will be a career mode with 9 tours and over 40 events. The best part, it will utilize Game Center for online multiplayer with auto-matchmaking. Game Center integration doesn't stop there, there's over 15 different leaderboards, achievements, and you'll even be able to save and share replays with your Game Center friends. Oh, and the cherry on top– Retina Display graphics.

A trailer was just released today that shows the game in motion, and it looks just as good as the description makes it sound:

According to the trailer, FMX Riders will be available this month... And I really can't wait. Everything about this game looks and sounds awesome.

If you were paying attention to the gaming trends of last month, then you probably remember hearing about a little game called Game Dev Story [$3.99/Lite]. We originally reviewed Game Dev Story in mid-October, and were wholly impressed with how much time the game was able to suck away from our lives. From there, buzz for the game spread like wildfire. Sure, all of the heavy hitter gaming websites covered Game Dev Story, but it extended well beyond that to just about every tech or gaming blog across the entire web. I'm pretty sure I even spotted the recipe for the perfect RPG over on FoodNetwork.com. It was a well-deserved phenomenon for one of the finest hidden gems in the App Store.

If every Tom, Dick, and Harry talking about Game Dev Story still hasn't convinced you to pick up the game, then you're in luck, as a lite version has just been launched in the App Store. Just as a quick recap, Game Dev Story lets you run your own virtual video game company. You decide the name of your company, what kind of games to make, and what consoles to support. You'll need to manage a staff of game designers who can level up and learn various skills, as well as managing your entire financial situation so as not to run your company into the ground. The hook in Game Dev Story is coming up with your own ideas, seeing how well your team can execute them, and the surprises of watching whether or not they end up being successful in market. The game should also hold a special place in longtime gamers' hearts in the way it vaguely mimics the actual history of video games, and uses mock versions of just about every famous name or brand possible.

This video from The Game Trail demonstrates the various kinds of gameplay in Game Dev Story nicely:

I honestly cannot recommend Game Dev Story enough. It has some sort of mystical power that urges you to keep on playing it even when there are more pressing matters to attend to, such as eating and sleeping. It may not be the prettiest looking game around, but the retro-style graphics are actually really charming in their own way. And the graphics play second fiddle to the overwhelmingly enjoyable gameplay anyway. I could imagine that some people might be hesitant to spend $3.99 on Game Dev Story based on screenshots or video alone, even despite all the positive fanfare, and that is why I urge every gamer to at least download and try the lite version.

The full version gives you a 20 year campaign to play through, with the option of continuing it infinitely without high score tracking. The lite version lets you play through 2 years of the campaign, which should be sufficient enough to get the general idea of if you will like it or not. If you need further convincing or help with Game Dev Story, check out the lengthy thread in our forums that has exploded with activity since the game's release.

Originally one of the gorier games of the time, Splatterhouse is a side-scrolling beat 'em up released to arcades back in 1988. To coincide with the franchise reboot being released on consoles November 23rd, the original version is making its way to iOS devices on November 18th. From what I can tell from these screenshots, this version will be a port of the arcade game rather than the toned-down Turbografx-16 version, though I'll have to see the game in action to be 100% sure if all the original gory bits will make their way in here.

In addition to containing the 7 stages of West Mansion from the original game, Splatterhouse for iPhone will also contain an exclusive Splatter Rush Mode. This new mode has the protagonist Rick facing off against waves of enemies attacking him in a single room in what essentially sounds like a survival mode. It isn't known whether or not a system like Game Center will be in place for tracking online high scores or achievements.

I was a huge fan of Splatterhouse on the Turbografx-16 back in the day, but I always felt like I was missing out by having a "censored" version of the game. I'm really hoping the iPhone version will be nearly pixel perfect to the original arcade game, as the gore and haunting atmosphere really added a lot to the experience. I also remember Splatterhouse as being an especially difficult game, so it will be interesting to see how well that translates to virtual touch screen controls.

Splatterhouse will be launching next Thursday for iPhone and iPod touch at a price of $2.99. There is a discussion for the game going on in our forums, and we'll be looking forward to checking out the iOS version of Splatterhouse next week.