New from Gamevil, developers of the popular RPGs Zenonia 2 [$2.99/Lite], Hybrid 2 [$2.99/Lite], and even the RPG-ish Baseball Superstars 2011 [$4.99/Lite], comes another entry into the role-playing game genre called Illusia [$4.99]. Illusia is less of a traditional RPG and more of an action-RPG/platformer hybrid. You'll run, jump, and attack through side-scrolling levels filled with monsters over the course of the 7 worlds in the game. Illusia has a very colorful and cute art style, and a fairly interesting (if a little cliché) storyline. But due to the repetitious quests and level grinding, it will really only appeal to a niche group of players, mainly those who enjoy leveling up and equipping their character with the ridiculous amount of items in the game. If that is your thing though, Illusia really excels in this area.
You start out in Illusia by choosing to play as one of two different classes, a fighter or a magician. That may not sound like much, but each class can be customized to a pretty ridiculous degree through the course of the game, so it's not much of an issue. The majority of quests are simple kill X amount of enemies or fetch X amount of items, and they all start to blend together after a while. It works though because it's simply a means to level up and unlock equipment to outfit your character with, and the amount of items available provide a ton of customization options. There is also a number of IAP extras that you can buy in the game that allow you to trick out your character even more, and an interesting online auction system lets you buy or sell items with other players around the world.
One thing I did not like about Illusia was the onscreen controls. They are large and obscuring, and not very responsive. However I soon discovered that you can customize the size, positioning, and opacity of them and things improved considerably, though they can still be unresponsive at times. Luckily the action in the game is casual enough that this never really hinders your enjoyment. Another issue related to this is the haphazard touch screen support in menus. Some menu items and popup windows allow you to simply tap a button to proceed, but some of them require you to navigate using the virtual controls. Again, it's not a game ruining problem, but it can be pretty annoying.
If building up a character as you see fit while blasting through some Mario-style levels sounds like a good time, then you'll likely enjoy Illusia. I've been having a good time playing through the game, and plenty of players are enjoying it in our forums, but it is starting to feel a little too repetitious for my liking. The sheer amount of items in the game is really impressive, and the graphics and story are entertaining enough to hold your interest. Once you've completed the game, there's a special hard mode that provides a nice challenge as you take your leveled up character through the game again. In the end, Illusia doesn't do anything particularly mind blowing, but the gameplay is solid and it will keep you occupied for quite some time.
Point-and-click beauty Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars: The Director's Cut won't be the last Broken Sword game to grace the App Store. Game creator Revolution has announced that its sequel -- and an improved one to boot -- will be hitting iOS "very shortly."
Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror: Remastered, as its being called, will feature fully animated facial expressions, sexier visuals, Game Center support, Dropbox save integration for cross-platform saves, and the same awesome context-sensitive hint system that appeared in the Shadows of the Templars iOS. And as if that wasn't enough, it'll also hit the App Store with higher quality music and a new digital comic created by artist Dave Gibbons.
The story sees the return of George Stobbart and Nico Collard. While investigating a ruthless drug gang, journalist Nico Collard unexpectedly comes across an ancient artifact. Little does she know that the ornately carved obsidian stone will lead her, and her adventuring companion George Stobbart, into a mysterious escapade of intrigue and deceit, in which they must overcome powerful forces and antagonists who will stop at nothing to fulfill their evil ambitions.
No doubt this is exciting news for the droves you who loved the original Broken Sword as much as we did on our iPadsand other iTouch devices. We'll be sure to get our hands on this one as soon as we can and relay the, hopefully, good word on it.
Just the other day, big news broke regarding the iOS port of the web-based game The Witcher: Versus broke: Chillingo, the publisher responsible dropping games like Toki Tori [$2.99 / Lite] and Minigore [$.99 / HD] on the App Store, will be handling the publishing duties.
In the press release announcing this move, CEO of Versus developer one2tribe, Wojciech Ozimek, spit HUGE game about the port. Here's what he said:
“Fans will still find epic duels in The Witcher: Versus; however we have revolutionized the gameplay for iOS devices so they quickly discover new possibilities and features unseen before.
Chillingo is the ideal partner to publish our game based on their proven track record -- we wanted to ensure that our title is introduced properly with new consumers so they can discover the immersive, addictive adventure at their fingertips.”
The Witcher: Versus is a menu-led fighting game. It's, essentially, turn-based Mortal Kombat with UI-assigned actions. In the game, you pick attacks and defensive patterns in the game's interface while another person does the same. Fight outcomes are then decided based on what you picked versus what he picked. If you didn't block an attack, that's counts against your health and so on.
So, you have to wonder what the revolutionized gameplay in the iOS version is. I got in touch with Ozimek to see what was up. Turns out that The Witcher: Versus will be able to talk to the web-based version and vice versa. Good, strong cross compatibility is the big deal here.
"The key revolutionary solution is direct interaction between iPhone and Internet browser players (more platforms to come soon). In The Witcher: Versus you can freely browse the arena for challenges and fight players for both platforms using the same combat sequences, same items etc.
Furthermore, one you set up an account in the game you can use the same details to log into the game from both the iPhone and browser. All your character's stats, items, rank and other information will be stored and accessible no matter which platform you currently use"
If you're a fan of Versus, that's some pretty hip functionality. Games like these need a lot of attention from the player and we all don't sit in front of computers during the day. But do we always have our phones on us? Oh, yes, we do. Another huge benefit of this cross-compatibility is there will be a huge player base on day one from the existing web game. These are exciting times we live in.
Like many iOS games around this time of year, Zepto Lab and Chillingo are readying a holiday themed edition of everybody's favorite feed-a-candy-that-is-swinging-on-a-rope-to-a-tiny-monster game, Cut the Rope. Unlike some games, however, Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift will actually be a standalone game rather than an update to the existing one. Don't go throwing a fit just yet though, as you won't be required to make an additional purchase since Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift will be launching for free. I had a chance to experience the game first hand at the EA Mobile event last week, and it's looking like another great edition in the epic struggle to feed Om Nom.
There will be 25 brand new levels to play through in Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift, and of course the entire game is drenched with the sights and sounds of Winter holidays (formerly known as Christmas). Most interesting, however, is the introduction of holiday socks (formerly known as Christmas stockings). These always come in pairs, and basically act as teleports for Om Nom's candy. Drop a piece into one and it will pop out of the other, giving you yet another way to transport candy to his gaping maw.
Besides the 25 new levels and the new teleporting socks game mechanic, Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift will also feature Game Center with new achievements to unlock. While the OCD part of me that hates having multiple icons for essentially the same games (I'm looking at you Robot Unicorn Attack series) wishes this was just an update, I really can't look a holiday gift horse in the mouth. Who knows, perhaps sometime down the line this edition will be added into the original Cut the Rope. Be on the lookout for Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift as it should be available in time for Christmas.
Update: Well that didn't take long. Less than half a day after posting this preview, and Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift has arrived as a universal app. A discussion thread for the game has been started in our forums, and you can grab the game using the link below.
Indie development studio Manomio, whose proud motto is "in retro we trust," first grabbed our attention last summer when their Commodore 64 for iPhone [link] emulation app was rejected by Apple, putting some of the App Store's boundaries under the spotlight. Happily, though, C64 eventually got the green light and has been warming the hearts of retro gaming enthusiasts for just over a year, now. It's beautifully executed and is a favorite here at Touch Arcade.
Early this year, Manomio let us know that they had a whole lot more retro heart warming in store and shared details of their upcoming Amiga emulation system, now known as iAmiga, that would allow them to license and release various classic Amiga titles to be faithfully rendered on your iPhone screen. On hearing this we were -- readers and editors alike -- thrilled at the prospect of enjoying some of the true gaming gems that sit among the vast library of Amiga releases. A short tech demo video was provided in short order, showing two games in play, that served as quite a teaser, making us very anxious to get our hands on the studio's latest.
I'm happy to report that, yesterday, Manomio CTO Stuart Carnie was merciful enough to finally put an end to our suffering and provide us with an exclusive early build of the iAmiga system, packed with a bundle of sample games, to put through its paces. Yea, it's dirty work, but somebody's got to do it.
After spending some serious time with the iAmiga system, I can tell you that, for an early build, it is truly impressive. While it's true that a few of the games that I tried glitched at some point, the vast majority ran perfectly and buttery smoothly on my iPhone 4. I'm talking about totally accurate sound, flawless graphics, glass smooth animation -- just as if the games were being played on the standard config Amiga 500 that iAmiga emulates. Right now there are keyboard, mouse, and joystick input systems that can be activated with a tap, but (especially in the case of the keyboard) they are quick and dirty solutions that will be replaced with much more refined components before anything lands in the App Store, Stuart assures me. The overall portrait / landscape control mechanics, like those found in the studio's C64, will be preserved, however.
As for what's under the hood of the iAmiga system, Manomio has taken the UAE4All Amiga emulator and tied it to Stuart's own ARM assembly optimized, emulated 68000 CPU core. In the name of performance, the core relies upon the ARM7x architecture and, as such, only iPhone 3GS / 3rd gen. iPod touch devices and up can play. iPad support is coming, as well.
The original plan was to take this emulator and wrap it around various licensed Amiga titles and release them as stand-alone games. That's still part of the plan, but as certain App Store restrictions have loosened a bit of late, there will likely also be a sort of Amiga shell app released that that allows the stand-alone games to be played in a richer Amiga emulation environment that may offers things like OpenGL ES 2.0 shader effects to add scan-lines, CRT glare, and even TV-out and iPad play using a tethered iPhone as a controller. Just the kind of things that make die-hard retro nuts rather weak in the knees.
Stuart has given the okay for us to record and share sample gameplay footage of his emulation system, and so I've put together a fairly lengthy mix of 10 Amiga games that you just might remember.
The games shown in the video are the following, in order: Defender of the Crown, Battle Squadron, International Karate +, R-Type, R-Type II, Speedball, Stunt Car Racer, Shadow of the Beast, Virus, and Xenon 2: Megablast. It should be noted that this list does not represent the list of games that will necessarily be coming to the App Store through the iAmiga system -- these are games simply used to test the system in its developmental state. (In fact, some of these I added from my own collection of Amiga disk images.)
As far as what we will be seeing in the way of iOS Amiga releases, Manomio has licensed various titles from Cinemaware, so Defender of the Crown, It Came from the Desert, Wings, and others are on the way. The studio is currently in licensing discussions with several other IP holders to secure additional titles for iOS release, including Factor 5 (Turrican I, II, III), The Bitmap Brothers (Xenon II: Megablast), Magnetic Fields (Supercars), Cope-Com (Battle Squadron), and Archer MacLean (IK+). Additionally, they are in talks with an unnamed major mobile publisher that's very interested in putting Amiga classics in the hands of today's gamers.
As you can see from the video, what we're in for is a wave of excellent games that are retro, true, but not so retro that they lack mainstream appeal. (Yes, the Amiga was that advanced 25 years ago.) This is big news, not only for iOS gamers, but for mobile gaming in general. In my personal experience, Amiga emulation has been quite a bit more difficult to manage than other age-old platforms on proper Macs and PCs due to the complexity of the original hardware. The thought of having easy access to these games in a tap-and-go fashion -- even standing in line at the bank -- is just amazing. I call this some of the very biggest news in iOS gaming that we've ever covered and can't wait until all of you out there get a chance to enjoy these great Amiga titles on your iOS devices, as well.
For readers unfamiliar with the Amiga, it is a 16-bit computer released by Commodore in 1985. A far more complex system than the C64, the Amiga featured a powerful central processor (the same found in the early Macintosh), various custom co-processors, and a multitasking operating system that, together, enabled audiovisual feats previously unseen in a consumer system at that point in time. While it did not see enormous popularity in the United States, it was wildly popular in Europe and is considered by many to be one of the very best game platforms ever created. InfoWorld called the Amiga the "third milestone" in computing after the Apple II and IBM PC.
We'll be tracking Manomio's iAmiga project closely and will pass along any further details that emerge, as we get them.
UPDATE: The developer has indicated that iAmiga will gain AGA support sometime after the first version is out the door. AGA (for Advanced Graphics Architecture) is the third generation Amiga chipset that brought a 24-bit color palette and more overall graphics horsepower to the platform. (Many of the most recent Amiga games are AGA-only.)
Tabletop games are tactile beasts, but few rely on feedback as much as Jenga. You start the game with a block spire, perfect and tall. And then you chip at its fortitude as blocks are removed. The recipe for success, I think, is one part attention and two parts confidence. But both require touch. You need to feel that loose block and gauge it versus others before you pull it.
This is why Jenga for iOS [$2.99 / HD] struck me as strange. Sure, you can approximate the actual game with a touch screen, but can the sheer physicality translate to digital? Because without it… well, you won't really have Jenga.
The answer lies somewhere between "yes" or "no." Video Jenga certainly looks like the real thing and responds like the real thing. In fact, the game even tries to capture that hide-and-seek aspect of physical Jenga. When you touch a virtual block that is integral to a tower's stability, a red highlight appears, steering you clear. The loose blocks, however, are tinted in shades of white and pink -- safe colors.
And you pull like you would in the real thing. Once you identify a block you want to get rid of, you need to be slow and exact. The video variant approximates this via a bow-and-arrow-like interface in which the block is the arrow and you are the string. Pull it back softly and to the center of an invisible bow and then the block is removed.
Pull it too hard or grab a piece that matters and the tower crumbles.
But What Jenga lacks is something that simply can't be translated to games: weight and substance. All the visual clues in the world can't replace what a Jenga feels like to play, and as a result, there's a brutal disconnect.
That isn't to say that this is a wash. Jenga for iOS works and it provides a true enough interpretation of the tabletop game. What doesn't translate is reality and that's never, ever been recreated in a video game in any satisfactory regard. Even life simulations fail here.
Give Jenga a shot if you're hankering for the game without the mess, or actually, if you ever wanted to try a zany arcade version of the game. The game's "Arcade Mode" assigns point values and weird bonuses to colored blocks, which is a cool twist on an otherwise bland experience. There's also a pass and play mode, too, if that kind of thing is your bag.
Last year Gameloft released Dungeon Hunter, their take on a Diablo-style hack 'n slash dungeon crawling RPG. For the time, Dungeon Hunter was one of the finest examples of the genre on the iOS platform, and we thoroughly enjoyed the title in our extensive review. In fact, you may as well read up on that review right now, as the follow up title Dungeon Hunter 2 [$6.99] is nearly identical to its predecessor. Everything from the 3 class choices, to the combat, to the way loot flies out of chests... even the menu interfaces are all practically the same. I don't mean this in a bad way either, as this kind of consistency is nice from subsequent titles in a series, but we are definitely treading familiar territory here.
While Dungeon Hunter 2 is fundamentally the same as the original, like any good sequel it does improve in a number of areas. The graphics are a great deal better, with more detailed character models and environments and Retina Display support. The game areas are also a bit more opened up, rather than the mostly narrow and linear spaces from the first game. The skill tree is a little more complex, although not by much, and there is still a staggering amount of equipment to collect and adorn your character with. The same 3 classes of warrior, rogue, and mage are available but this time they can be specialized in certain areas, essentially giving you alternate classes to become.
The entire single player campaign is pretty much more of the same, but there is an interesting new feature which is online cooperative multiplayer through Game Center or Gameloft Live. You can connect online with up to 3 other players and work your way through campaign quests using your character. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get the online to work in order to check it out. No matter if I'm trying to search for 2, 3, or 4 players, it fails to ever find me a match, over both Game Center and Gameloft Live. When trying to start a game directly with buddies from my list, we can get into the lobby together but the moment the actual game tries to load the connection drops. Every. Single. Time. It's frustrating because I'm excited for this feature, and I hope it's just my device having a brain fart or some other minor issue, rather than a serious bug.
Barring the online issue though, I'm liking Dungeon Hunter 2 a lot so far. Although it doesn't do anything radically different than the first, it still offers up the same enjoyable elements with a few nice improvements. If you liked the first Dungeon Hunter, and were craving more once you completed it, then you should thoroughly enjoy this sequel. It somewhat ties into the thin storyline from the first, and assuming the online becomes functional it should provide a decent amount of replay value when you're finished with it. Also, there's 3 difficulty levels that unlock after beating the game the first time, which is nice because a major complaint with the first game was that it was extremely easy. Don't forget to drop by the thread in our forums for additional information and player impressions of Dungeon Hunter 2.
We've been following Chair's Infinity Blade [$5.99] like a hawk since we first caught wind of the game at the Apple Keynote. Through various interviews, trailers, screenshots, and other snippets of information, the hype surrounding Infinity Blade's release couldn't possibly be more intense. For what it is, it's an absolutely fantastic gesture-based fighting game that has without a doubt the best graphics we've seen so far on an iOS device. However, for all that it is, there are also many things that it's not.
The game opens with a cut scene with your character ascending the castle to come face to face with the God King. In a cryptic foreign language decoded with subtitles, they chat back and forth for a bit before the God King dispatches his guard to fight you. This begins a brief tutorial which ultimately ends in the God King slamming his Infinity Blade straight through your gut, draining your essence, and powering up the God King even further. This begins the infinite loop that is Infinity Blade, as 20 years later, your successor stands staring the very same castle in the face.
Navigating the castle is all done via a point and click interface, where you tap pulsating circles, watch a brief cinematic animation, and wind up where you tapped. At each stop you can look around, but you can never move anywhere but to the next waypoint. When an enemy appears, you can inspect them with a button in the bottom right corner of the screen, or tap them to fight them, which is when the real fun begins.
Infinity Blade is a game of technique more than anything else. Looking at the combat at its most basic level, you're able to swing your sword by swiping, block by tapping the block button in the bottom center of the screen, or dodge either direction by tapping the bottom right or left sides of the screen. Sure, you can randomly block, dodge, and swing wildly, but doing well really involves putting all these moves together to avoid taking any damage while dishing as much out as you can.
My favorite part of the combat system is parrying. When fighting enemies, you're able to parry attacks by swinging your sword in the direction to collide with the incoming strike. It's not that simple though, as different enemies all have different attack speeds, as well as different attacks which might be faster or slower. An immense amount of timing is required to successfully parry, especially as you progress in the game. For instance, you might be fighting an enemy who is winding up a slow but extremely powerful attack. If you swing your sword too soon, you'll just scratch the enemy. Too late, and you'll have already taken it to the face. Dodging works much the same way.
The truly neat part of all this is just how well the animation of your character translates to each swipe on the screen. If you swipe right, your character swings right, swipe left, and he swings left, and so on. What you begin to realize once you get farther in to the game is just how exact and deliberate each swipe needs to be. There isn't any way to cancel your current swing once you swipe on the screen, so swiping in the wrong direction or at the wrong time can leave you open for attack for the entire duration of the swing animation. It all works incredibly well, and is just ridiculously cool once you begin to grasp these kind of nuances.
Once you successfully progress through the castle, which will likely only take you around a half hour of solid play, you'll be face to face with the God King again. It seems like with perfect technique, beating the God King might be possible on your first play through, but it seems far outside my ability. Inevitably, you will die, which just like the beginning of the game leads to your essence being sucked out. Thankfully, the God King is a good sport, and seemingly allows your next of kin to retrieve your corpse, all your gear, and any experience you've accumulated.
After that, the next bloodline begins, with the successor of the previous victim of the God King overlooking the castle ready to try again. Why the God King keeps giving your loot to your predecessor and why your family doesn't just decide that killing God Kings just isn't for them isn't ever explained. If you don't kill the God King, you can send generation after generation of your bloodline to their death. Maybe I'm too much of a pacifist, but if I had heard that my great grandpa, my grandpa, and my Dad were all killed by the same God King, I'd explore a career in something other than revenge, but I digress.
The way the equipment, experience, and magic system works in Infinity Blade is awesome. You earn experience through items, and as you fight, items are filled with experience until they're mastered. For example, you buy a new sword from the in-game store with your gold coins that looks really cool. That sword has its own experience bar, and it gains a bit of experience after each battle. Any experience it earns, you also earn, and your character also has his own experience bar for leveling up. Once you fight enough with that sword to fill its experience bar, you master it. Mastered items provide an additional bonus, with the drawback that you can no longer gain experience through that item.
This requires you to balance your equipment load-out based on several factors. Obviously, experience is required to level up your character. Using all mastered items, or more than a few, flat-out stops or greatly reduces the amount of experience you're able to earn. If you've got a difficult battle coming up, you could equip all your mastered items to be more effective, but you'd be sacrificing all the experience you'd earn from the fight. Additionally, items have elemental properties to them for casting magic spells such as a fire spell, a lightning spell, and more. These are executed by tapping an icon when it's ready in the top right corner of the screen, then drawing the spell's gesture on the screen.
The equipment system adds a really great element of replay value to the game. While the looping nature of the game is a little silly, the RPG-loving experience bar filling side of me absolutely loves how you're constantly cycling new gear, leveling that gear up, and equipping something new. With each play through as your strength increases, so do the enemies you're fighting, and the rewards you're given.
If you were expecting Infinity Blade to be some massive open-world RPG and any number of other things I've seen people on our forums suggesting, you're going to be sorely disappointed. If all you were looking for is a fighting game with a really cool input method that fits perfectly with iOS devices, you're going to be in for a treat. The RPG elements are very light, but the fighting is solid, and the graphics are the best we've seen so far on the App Store. Infinity Blade is universal, and seems to play equally well on both the small screen of the iPhone and the big screen of the iPad. I cannot stress enough just how great the graphics in this game are. The bar has been raised, and anyone with a device capable of running the game needs to download Infinity Blade to see what the iOS platform is capable of.
Iteration is hard. In games, you can either tack on more mechanics on top of the original's foundation or you can choose to take it apart, brick by brick, and rebuild it into something familiar, but better. Most studios choose the former. Some choose the latter. And others choose to do a mix of the two.
Puzzle Quest 2 [$9.99] is a title that features a mix. It retains what made the original oh-so-good, but also boasts fresh ideas. New glove gems let you use weapons in battle and a more personal isometric viewpoint makes you feel like you're an active participant in both the game world and a narrative that would have Tolkien rolling in his grave.
That's rather broad, so let's dive into the basics. Puzzle Quest 2 is a match-3 title drenched in RPG trappings. You'll start the game by picking from a crop of traditional fantasy classes, each with their own abilities, and then be thrust into a medieval world with a lot of problems. People will want you to fetch them items, explore places, or kill monsters.
You can level up, equip weapons and items, craft even more, and navigate dungeons one grid at a time. Like in the previous Puzzle Quest, movement is restricted to following a developer-created path. You do not have complete control of your dude. But, really, that never matters. This is a game about killing, not meandering.
Most of the RPG stuff is tied to the battle system. Battle is where you'll spend most of your time and the most meaningful place where the match-3 ties component ties in. When you initiate battle with a foe, you'll be blasted to an interface filled with multi-colored gems, skulls, and gloves. Lining up three or more skulls does damage to your foe, while simple gem matches act as fuel for magical feats.
Battle is turn-based, so there's no time crunch. You act and then the goblin, yeti, tiger-man, or whatever acts. But the fact that there isn't a timer is important; it gives you time to line up bonuses. If you match three or more of something, you get another turn. Start a cascade of several matches and get another turn.
RPG overlaps here. You can equip weapons and defensive items or even items that have an affect on how many gems you can collect. You also level up, so your HP, strength, and defensive prowess can change between battles. These elements act as a carrot, sure, but they're also crucial in keeping the match-3 play interesting, deep, and above all, entertaining.
The AI, to some degree, is balanced appropriately for battle. However, there are some humdingers that you'll need to grind out levels in order to beat. Puzzle Quest 2 is smart in that it has a one-off "Quick Battle" mode that allows to just fight, without the dungeon, in order to get precious experience points.
The majority of the time these systems play nice with each other, but every once in awhile you'll hit a vicious snag. Some AI monsters are poorly balanced. They'll either destroy you in just a matter of turns or frequently rip off brutal combinations. You can also see the virtual dice rolls favoring the AI in these conflicts.
I also think Puzzle Quest 2 suffers from system overload. There's just too many dice rolling at once, be it from the game negotiating your level, a critical hit, a defend, a combination, or whatever. It kills the simplicity of the play and often prolongs even the simplest battle for far too long.
And while we're talking about systems, I'll add that there are new mini-games in Puzzle Quest 2, all designed to make a simple task much harder. For example, in order to get loot, you'll have to earn it via a match-3 mini-game. The same goes for bashing in closed doors or disarming traps. I can appreciate the attempt here, as it does offer a chance of pace from monster conflicts, but these mini-games pop up much too often.
If you haven't caught on by now, I'll make it plain. Puzzle Quest 2 for iOS appears to be a picture perfect port of the console and handheld versions of the game, which hit digital and brick-and-mortar shelves earlier this year. It's also optimized for iOS, offering simple to use and intuitive touch controls. On my iPad, it's a brilliant game and it does hold up on an iPhone 4 as well.
This is in stark contrast to the first game, Puzzle Quest Chapter 1 and 2 [$6.49 / Lite] which initially served as a shining example as a terrible iOS port. It got better over a series of updates, but even now it's a little rough around the edges.
Let's just forget that game ever happened because Puzzle Quest 2 is a superior product in every imaginable way and a great game all on its lonesome. Sure, it can get repetitious and, yeah, sure, it has its issues, but it's still an entertaining game and a full-featured one on iOS. Give it a shot.
Is the video game killing the board game? I don't know, man, but I think you can argue that tabletop licensors themselves are doing a brilliant job driving nails into their products' respective caskets. Take a look at digital storefronts and you'll see classic tabletop-properties-turned-video-games like Carcassonne [$9.99] and Connect 4 [99¢] lined up next to non-traditional games like The Maw or Battlefield 1943. It's weird.
I think the reason why licensors choose to peddle digital versions of their games extends beyond obvious cold business realities. Games like Connect 4 translate well to digital, first of all. But more importantly, these games operate as touchstones. You remember sinking your sister's Battleship [99¢] battleship. This stuff has emotional weight.
For me, no other game conjures as many memories as Monopoly [$9.99]. This is why I buy the game so damn much. And while it's oft been digitized, until this afternoon, the game hasn't been put on the platform that makes the most sense: The iPad.
So, let's talk about it.
Foremost, this is a faithful recreation of the board game. All the pieces, all the house rules, the buildings, and the properties are present and accounted for. Furthermore, the game's presentation nails the actual board, making for a nostalgic and satisfying experience. Seriously, look at this thing. It's a perfect and slick recreation.
What's missing is all the tactile stuff: piece movements, money exchanges, card pick-ups, and property flip-flops are automated. This isn't a huge deal, but there is a small part of me that still wants to move my Top Hat Of Doom across the board and I just can't get that from this version of the game.
The dice, however, aren't automated. You'll need to grab and roll the dice with a touch and a swipe in order to progress. It's a cool touch, but also one that shows off how wonky the game's physics engine is. When rolled, the dice respond like rubber balls surround by an invisible wall, needlessly bouncing off its unseen surface. The bad dice physics also showcase a bad camera that needlessly attempts to follow the die's ridiculous bouncing. It's jarring in that "The Blair Witch Project" sort of way.
Other unautomated actions include auctions and trades. These, of course, require some bits of intuitive UI and active participation. Surprisingly, the AI holds up pretty well in both these realms -- it's savvy without being too know-it-all. It's also pretty good at housing up its properties on top of getting what it needs, so look out.
Monopoly has several game modes. There's a "Play Now" option that lets you play with up to four AI. And there's also a "Tabletop Mode" which offers pass-and-play opportunities with others. On an iPad, this is almost perfect since the touch screen is so large. I had a good time with another, at least.
I'll mention that there's a "Teacher Mode" that instructs how to play the game while you actually participate in a session. There's also a "Local Network Play" option that operates as implied.
It feels funny to talk about all this tech voodoo about Monopoly. This version does such a great job at recreating the feel of the game, conjuring up those memories, and sating that itch to play the actual board game, that you tend to forget that it's just an iOS title. Come to think of it, this is what really matters. Go buy it already.
By now, most App Store gamers shouldn't really be surprised by Gameloft's method of operation. Basically, they “borrow heavily” from a popular style of console game and come up with their own version of it. Opinions are mixed on whether this is right, wrong, good, or bad. But regardless of your feelings towards Gameloft, it's hard to argue with some of the compelling gameplay experiences that they've brought to iOS that we might not otherwise have. One of the newest offerings from them is called Eternal Legacy [$6.99], released earlier today, and is a riff of the most recent Final Fantasy console games.
I've spent a bit of time with Eternal Legacy today, and like most of Gameloft's other titles, it's not bad, and offers a comparable experience to the game that they draw inspiration from. For what is supposed to be a story-driven game, the borderline laughable voice acting detracts from the experience some. But the story itself is fairly engaging, and the turn-based battle sequences are a lot of fun. Plus, it has feminine male characters that carry huge swords, so really, what more could you want?
Enemies roam around the 3D environments in Eternal Legacy, so you have an idea of when you'll be engaging in battle. There can be up to 3 members in your party, but you'll only have full control over the main character by default, though you can change this in the options. You can choose from a number of different attacks, skills, or items to use during battle. Up to 3 of these can be queued up and a small timer gauge denotes when each move will be executed. The secondary characters in your party will perform moves on their own, but you can choose the demeanor of those moves, such as if they should attack enemies or focus on healing your party.
You will also have full control over equipping each character in your party, and there are a ton of equipment and weapon options. Also, you can collect rare fragments that can be fused with your equipment to add special properties to them, like fire damage or healing. There's quite a lot going on in Eternal Legacy, and the game does an excellent job at walking you through the process each time you do something new. The menus are all clean and easy to navigate, and the default setup of the gameplay is very conducive to gaming on the go.
For anybody who has been looking for a fully 3D RPG experience that is similar to a contemporary Final Fantasy game, Eternal Legacy should quell that desire pretty well. The battling is entertaining, with plenty of weapons and gear to equip, the magical skill attacks have over-the-top animations and graphical effects, and there appears to be a sufficiently interesting storyline if you can look past some of the terrible voice acting (or better yet, turn it off altogether in the options screen). The environments are pretty linear, but look nice visually and still contain a good amount of areas to explore and secrets to discover.
If you're looking for some more information or further impressions on Eternal Legacy, check out the thread in our forums which has been abuzz with activity regarding the game all day long.
According to Kotaku, gaming guru Graeme Devine has left Apple. Devine got his start in development in the late 70's on the TRS-80 before being hired at the age of 16 to work at Atari, helping to bring Pole Position to various home computers including the Commodore 64 and Apple IIe. From there, he went on to co-found Trilobyte Games which then went on to release both The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour. After leaving Trilobyte, he worked with Id on many games, including Quake III Arena and Doom 3. More recently, he was lead designer for Halo Wars, an RTS set in the Halo universe.
At Apple, Graeme held a key position making sure that gaming on iOS devices was as good as it could be. In an interview with Kotaku, he explained some specifics of his responsibilities:
"My job there was basically to make gaming on the iOS devices fantastic," Devine said. "Basically that meant looking at the technologies involved and making sure the software played well with the hardware, to look at upcoming hardware/API and say 'Yup, that is a good thing'.
"Apple didn't have an in-house game designer before me so I think it was pretty unique, game technologies touch everything from the graphics stack to touch latency to push notifications. No other app type covers so many technologies and having someone there to validate and help shape that was basically my day job. It was pretty kick ass."
His reasoning for leaving Apple lies in his desire to return to game design, specifically targeting the iPhone and iPad. He even provided the following hint for his next title, which is going to be for the "Mac desktop".:
We're not sure if this means it will be appearing in the Mac App Store or not, but we hope so. Either way, we're sad to hear that Apple has lost such fantastic game design talent, but at the same time it's great to hear that Graeme Devine is getting back to building games.
Industry Gamers reports on the results of a new survey from market research firm Interpret revealing that users of handheld games are increasingly moving away from dedicated devices such as the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP in favor of smartphones such as the iPhone.
The report, "The Phone Gaming Revolution: Do the DS and PSP Stand a Chance?," found that 43.8% of the phone/DS/PSP gaming market plays games on phones, which represents a significant 53.2% increase over the past year. At the same time, Interpret says that the proportion of those who play on the DS or PSP has fallen by 13%.
But while that data could indicate that the market for handheld gaming is simply expanding with the increasing capabilities of phones, other data shows that users of dedicated gaming devices are in fact abandoning those devices in favor of their phones.
The company notes, "Gamers appear to be defecting from their handheld gaming devices to phones to get their gaming kicks: a full 27.2% of consumers who indicate that they play games on their phones only (and not on the DS/PSP) actually own a DS or PSP, but do not actively use the device(s)."
With existing dedicated gaming devices being forsaken in favor of all-in-one smartphone devices, some analysts are questioning whether dedicated devices have a significant role in the future portable gaming market. Sony at least appears to be responding to the threat with a "PlayStation Phone" of its own that appears to be an Android-based device offering many of the features of a smartphone while also including hardware buttons akin to those found on traditional handheld gaming devices.
2D Boy'sWorld of Goo has a ton of history behind it. It was originally released completely DRM and license-free for the Mac and PC (as well as the Wii nearly a year later) and saw amazing reviews from the gaming press. This is where you'd expect the story of the game to then end in 2D Boy making tons of money and everyone living happily ever after, as PC gamers are constantly harping on developers about restrictive copy protection (like StarForce) or cumbersome CD key systems is what drives them to piracy. Sadly, not long after its release, despite all the critical acclaim and awards, 2D Boy's publisher filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy as only 1 out of 10 people playing World of Goo had paid for it.
The good news despite all that is 2D Boy is still around, and they've been hard at work on an iPad version of World of Goo that's scheduled to launch on December 16th for $9.99. If you've never played the game before, you're going to be in for an absolute delight. The goal of each of the levels is to use the various goos to construct structures to reach the end pipe of each level where they're sucked up in to a huge tank. It isn't a new gameplay mechanic at all, as tons of developers (even on the App Store) have built strikingly similar structure building games before.
Where World of Goo pulls ahead of the pack is in its remarkable presentation. Everything in this game flows together flawlessly, from the difficulty curve to how the graphics combine with the music, to the various silly cut scenes and introductions of new goos, and more. This is all enhanced by the new multitouch interface which allows you to drag around multiple goos, build and move the camera at the same time, and more. It feels so natural that I'm not sure how I played the game with a mouse before.
Next week is going to be insane with even more pre-holiday releases than today, but if you own an iPad, make sure you save ten bucks to download World of Goo. Even if you've played through it before, it's such a substantially different and better experience on the iPad that I cannot recommend it enough.
With one Thursday to go before the iTunes Connect holiday lock out, tonight we're going to see the first of the avalanche of pre-Christmas releases. This Wednesday works the same as every other Wednesday on the App Store, but if you're not familiar, here's the gist- Entirely too many developers have banded together in some kind of secret Dr. Strangelove war room and have determined that releasing games on a Thursday is the best time to do it. When you set the release date in iTunes Connect to Thursday, games launch in international markets as the Earth spins and it slowly becomes Thursday in those areas. New Zealand is first, and us lucky Americans are last. All of these games will be available at 11:00 PM EST tonight, or earlier if you're in a region east of us.
Infinity Blade (Universal), $5.99 - [Forum Thread] - This game hardly needs an introduction anymore. Chair's epic sword fighter is on the verge of finding its way into the grubby hands of iDevice owners. We've been playing the preview version, and it's fantastic. Some will likely be disappointed by what Infinity Bladeisn't, as it isn't an open-world game, you can't control your movement, and even calling it any kind RPG is a bit of a stretch. What it is is a really great gesture-controlled sword fighter based on the Unreal Engine that everyone with a recent device really needs to download.
Puzzle Quest 2 (Universal), $9.99 - [Forum Thread] - The original Puzzle Quest [$4.99] was a ton of fun, and Puzzle Quest 2 expands upon the same awesome matching formula with RPG elements layered on top. Try Puzzle Quest Free [Free] first if you'd like, but this game is a safe purchase for any fan of puzzle games with depth.
Illusia, $4.99 - [Forum Thread] - Gamevil is calling Illusia a "casual platform game", which looks an awful lot like Maple Story to us. There are multiple classes, tons of gear to collect, and a bunch of character customization to delve into.
Dead Rising Mobile, $4.99 - [Forum Thread] - We got really in depth with our preview of the game, and despite its flaws, I couldn't help but enjoy it. Dead Rising is one of my favorite zombie slaughtering series, and I'm surprised by how well Capcom managed to translate the game to the iPhone.
TXT Fighter, 99¢ - [Forum Thread] - Similar to Texting of the Bread [$1.99], TXT Fighter puts your typing skills to the test, to, well, fight. We thought the game was cool in our preview, which is filled with more information about the title.
Pogo Games, Free - [Forum Thread] - EA is bringing over some favorite free games from their online Flash game portal Pogo.com. This is totally free, but without a membership to the Pogo service you'll be viewing some ads.
A Moon for the Sky, 99¢ - [Forum Thread] - This looks to be a cool little jumping game with a control mechanic that involves drawing platforms for the little moon to bounce up. 18 levels are included, as well as an endless mode.
Hero Project, Free - [Forum Thread] - A freemium game that revolves around building up a super hero and fighting bad guys. It sounds like an interesting premise, but like all of these free to play games, it really comes down to the balance between playing and paying. I'm just glad developers are breaking away from incredibly tired building and farming game types.
Jenga, $2.99 - [Forum Thread] - A curious title to see on the App Store, considering how much of actually playing Jenga involves such precise finger work. Regardless, the developers build this with the help of Leslie Scott, the inventor of Jenga, so it should be interesting to see how it all works. Jenga comes with multiple game modes as well as pass and play multiplayer.
Pirates vs. Ninjas vs. Zombies vs. Pandas, 99¢ - [Forum Thread] - Another take on the Angry Birds formula, this time with the injection of every cliche imaginable aside from farts. There are 4 campaigns across 45 levels, along with 8 different dudes to fling at the pirates, ninjas, zombies, and pandas.
Monopoly for iPad, $9.99 - [Forum Thread] - Finally, Monopoly for the iPad. I've had a ton of fun playing various board games and other local multiplayer games on my iPad, and I expect Monopoly to be just as good.
Eternal Legacy, $6.99 - [Forum Thread] - Gameloft's take on Final Fantasy XIII, featuring a curiously similar spiky haired protagonist and turn-based battle system. I'm anxious to see how much the story grabs me with this game, as while Gameloft games historically have been technically impressive, the plot and voice work (two things that are fairly important in a Final Fantasy-esque RPG) have left much to be desired.
Update: Oddly enough, Gameloft seems to have released this game early. Eternal Legacy seem to be available everywhere.
Dungeon Hunter 2, $6.99 - [Forum Thread] - We liked the first Dungeon Hunter [$4.99] quite a bit, as it had everything a good dungeon crawler needs: Tons of enemies, loot everywhere, and multiple classes to spice things up. The sequel is said to have all that, in addition to online coop multiplayer. I can't wait to try this out.
In addition to all the above games, the following HD iPad versions are also being released tonight:
Holy cow, now that is a lot of games. Also, EA handles their releases in two different versions, an "international" version and a "US" version. The above links for EA titles are all the international versions, which we'll update with the US links as soon as they are available at 11:00 PM EST tonight.
New from Gamevil, developers of the popular RPGs Zenonia 2 [$2.99/Lite], Hybrid 2 [$2.99/Lite], and even the RPG-ish Baseball Superstars 2011 [$4.99/Lite], comes another entry into the role-playing game genre called Illusia [$4.99]. Illusia is less of a traditional RPG and more of an action-RPG/platformer hybrid. You'll run, jump, and attack through side-scrolling levels filled with monsters over the course of the 7 worlds in the game. Illusia has a very colorful and cute art style, and a fairly interesting (if a little cliché) storyline. But due to the repetitious quests and level grinding, it will really only appeal to a niche group of players, mainly those who enjoy leveling up and equipping their character with the ridiculous amount of items in the game. If that is your thing though, Illusia really excels in this area.
Early this year, Manomio 
For readers unfamiliar with 
Iteration is hard. In games, you can either tack on more mechanics on top of the original's foundation or you can choose to take it apart, brick by brick, and rebuild it into something familiar, but better. Most studios choose the former. Some choose the latter. And others choose to do a mix of the two.
