iPhone developer Moregames Entertainment has an impressive collection of games under their belt. iDracula [$2.99 / Lite] was one of the first really great dual stick shooters released on the App Store, and both Knights Onrush [99¢ / Lite] and Knights Rush [99¢] are great castle defense and action games set in a similar fantasy universe. One game you might not be too familiar with of theirs is Orions: Legend of Wizards [$4.99], a fairly complicated card-based battle game with a seemingly small but very hardcore following.
If you were a part of that following, you're in for a treat:
The sequel is set to land next month, and aside from a totally redone campaign mode, and even the ability to customize your decks for use in single duels. There is even going to be online multiplayer. The down side of all this is that the small but hardcore audience I mentioned earlier that loved the original aren't too happy to see many of the features and functionality originally slated for updates now appearing in a brand new game. Personally, I'm just glad to see them at all, as the original Orions was a ton of fun, and I can't wait to play it online.
Considering how into Minecraft some folks are, and the surprising amount of unsanctioned Minecraft apps on the App Store, it’s not too surprising to learn this exciting bit of news: Mojang, the studio behind the indie monster hit, is developing its own iOS version of the title! It's slated to hit at some point in 2011 for the iPad, iPhone, and the iPod Touch.
Specifically, one dude is at the helm. A fellow that goes by the name of Aron Neiminen has been brought on board to handle it. Details, unfortunately, are light at the moment, but Gamasutra confirms that not all the updates to Minecraft will make it over the iOS version. Mojang is only instituting stuff Minecraft iOS that “makes sense” for its touch-based platforms, which is inspiring. You gotta love it when a dev gets that touch devices are just that -- touch devices.
Minecraft, by the way, is still in beta. You can get into the action by shooting over to the game’s Web site and checking out the download version or even the browser version.
This past week Bravo Games, who brought us Touch Racing Nitro, released Volcano Escape [App Store], a game that combines elements of several different genres to create what's best described as an "endless platformer" title.
As the game starts off, you choose one of six different characters to play, some of whom are locked initially, and one who is a $0.99 download as he sports five lives (two extra). And then that character is pitched into an active volcano. Luckily, the volcano in question is arrayed with platforms the whole way down. You land on the bottom platform, just above a pool of lava, but there's no time to gather your wits -- the lava is rising. The task at hand is to flee the molten menace by escaping upwards, jumping from platform to platform as nimbly as possible.
Complicating your flight are various tiki men and monsters that you must avoid or kill, and in the higher reaches of the volcano you'll need to use their blasted corpses as floating platforms to continue your ascent. Luckily there are various weapons and power-ups such as spring-loaded boots and even rocket packs to help you along the way -- but watch out, some of the items you'll find can do you harm.
One might assume that the driven ascent mechanic would require small, simplistic platform arrangements. And, if the developer's goal were to create a relatively easy game, it would. But Volcano Escape is definitely not an easy game, but one requiring serious skill to rank on the online leaderboard. A significant portion of the challenge in the game is due to the elaborate platform arrangements and the various types of platforms you'll encounter. In addition to nice, solid slabs of stone, you'll find rocks that crumble, hinged surfaces, slabs of fire, and even bear traps. These you must quickly identify and negotiate, all while the searing lava rises to meet you. And, as mentioned previously, at times there are sections without platforms that must be traversed with the help of corpses bobbing in the lava. It's a daunting scenario, but at least you can double-jump and wall-jump like Mario. A nice touch is the random presentation of one of a few different platform arrangements when a new game is started, which helps to avoid monotony.
Volcano Escape borrows -- and borrows well -- from a number of games I can point to. Like Doodle Jump and its ilk, you are bound endlessly upward, but along the way you have to tap into your basic platformer skills. Unlike the typical endless jumping game, however, you set your own pace of ascent with the encroaching lava as a motivator, similar to the use of fluids in games like Flood and The Killing Game Show / Fatal Rewind.
I found the game highly challenging and extremely difficult to put down in the (many) hours I've spent with it over the last few days. But, in that time, I've identified a few areas that could use some improvement. One issue that is more noticeable as you're just getting a feel for the game is the onscreen control placement. There are two D-pads in the lower corners of the screen, one for movement and one for aiming / firing. (The controls can be rendered invisible in the options screen.) The jump button is positioned on the right edge of the screen, about 60% of the way up towards the top, and that placement, initially at least, feels a bit awkward. An alternate control layout or, better, the ability to customize the control layout would be nice to see in an update.
The "2.5D" graphics in Volcano Escape look downright gorgeous on my iPhone 4's Retina display, with all sorts of nice environmental effects like falling rocks and background tremors. But, perhaps due to its lavish scenery, the game suffers from frequent framerate studders on that device. In my experience, it doesn't significantly get in the way of gameplay, but it is an annoyance, and is something I've heard echoed by folks in our forums.
Volcano Escape really does have a whole lot to offer. Its combination of play mechanics from various genres is beautifully executed, its challenge is immense, and it's got just a whole lot of personality. There are a few issues that I hope will be addressed in a future update but, even so, I'd be quick to recommend Volcano Escape as a "don't miss" title to any iPhone gamer that enjoys a steep challenge.
Disclaimer: Bravo Games is a current advertiser on this site. While we firmly believe this does not influence in any way our review or coverage of the company and their titles, you should be aware.
Back in January the folks at Team Phobic, the developer responsible for the excellent platforming games Bounce On [$1.99/Lite] and Bounce On 2: Drallo’s Demise [$3.99/Lite] as well as the puzzle platformer GravBot [$1.99/Lite/HD], announced their newest iOS title called Undead Island. Undead Island is another platforming game but is more action-oriented than any of Team Phobic’s previous efforts, and still features their colorful art style and solid level designs.
Just last week Team Phobic released the first trailer for Undead Island which shows off a good amount of gameplay, and so far is looking fantastic:
I’ve had a preview copy of Undead Island for the past week and have been enjoying it a ton. It really brings me back to those classic side-scrolling action games from the arcade and 16-bit eras. Undead Island will feature 16 levels on release with attractive graphics built for the Retina Display. Game Center will also be included for high score and achievement purposes. The game has been submitted already and Team Phobic hopes to have Undead Island out in time for GDC, which starts at the end of the month.
There’s currently a discussion about the game in our forums, and if you’re a fan of any of Team Phobic’s previous iOS efforts, or just a fan of solid action-platforming games in general, then you’ll be in for a treat when Undead Island releases sometime in the next couple of weeks.
It was only yesterday that we were discussing the possibility of Square Enix bringing Final Fantasy III to the App Store. I had a blast with both Final Fantasy [$8.99] and Final Fantasy II [$8.99], so this was incredibly exciting news for me. Video game announcements like this can sometimes seem to move at a glacial pace between when they're rumored or leaked and when they're finally confirmed. Needless to say, I was very surprised to wake up to the following tweet today by Square Enix:
Unfortunately, this is where all the confirmed details we have about this particular game end. Following the link from the tweet just takes you to a basic splash page with the Final Fantasy theme. I wish we had some more to go off here, but I suppose I'm happy we've at least got a confirmation, especially so quickly. I can't wait to spend hours upon hours on this game.
On Friday we reported that Cave announced that their 2007 arcade danmaku / bullet hell shooter DeathSmiles, which made its way to the Xbox 360 in 2009, would be coming to the iPhone this Spring. The studio has followed up with a press release providing additional details as well as a trailer video showing the action to come.
Enter the world of Gilverado, a kingdom plagued by hideous monsters and tortured souls. Choose from four angels with unique demonic familiars and battle against a storm of enemies pouring out of Hell's gates! Fight your way out of tight spots as you are surrounded by enemy units and bullets from both sides of the screen. The unique left and right shooting mechanic of Deathsmiles will keep you on your toes as you dodge and weave through complex enemy fire, beautifully crafted by the modern masters of shmups, CAVE.
DeathSmiles is a side-scrolling, gothic horror-styled shooter that sends hosts of enemies your way from all four sides of the screen, delivering highly intense onscreen action. It offers a choice of the order in which its various stages are tackled as well as of the character you play: Windia, "the foppish English girl;" Casper, "the sassy German;" Follett, "the cautious French girl;" or Rosa, "the California valley girl."
The Xbox 360 version features three play modes: a straight port of the arcade version, an "arranged" mode that offers independent control of a second on-screen character, and a graphically enhanced mode offering more lavish visuals.
Cave has also announced that their excellent Mushihimesama Bug Panic [App Store] will receive an update in March bringing Bluetooth and 3G/WiFi multiplayer, a choice to turn the Autobomb feature on or off, a choice of Attack Modes (lock or direct), as well as an update to the "lite" version [link], enabling players to play through all stages in the first world and also the Score Attack Mode.
Cave, who has produced 48 danmaku shooters over the past 16 years, has recently been recognized as "the most prolific developer of danmaku shooters" by the 2011 Guinness Book of World Records: Gamer's Edition.
According to a post in our forums, Japanese blog Esuteru (はちま起稿) has obtained a scanned image from V-Jump magazine which claims that Square Enix is readying a port of Final Fantasy III for iOS in addition to their already announced Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions port which is due sometime this Spring. This is exciting news to say the least, but unfortunately I don't read Japanese and therefore am left with quite a few questions.
First of all, the announcement of Final Fantasy III refers to a Japanese release, so even if it is officially in the works there's no guarantee that it will also come to the US. Given the success Square Enix has seen with their iOS Final Fantasy games stateside, I'd imagine that it will, but it would be nice to know for sure. Also, it isn't clear which version of Final Fantasy III would be ported. It was originally a Japanese NES game that wasn't released in the US until the 2006 Nintendo DS 3D remake. It could be a direct port of the NES title, a port of the DS version, or something entirely different.
It's important to remember that the Final Fantasy III that most Americans have fond memories of on the Super Nintendo is actually Final Fantasy VI in Japan, so don't get your hopes up if that's the version you're envisioning for this release. I never played the original Final Fantasy III on NES, but I did really enjoy the DS remake from a few years ago. I would hope that if Square Enix does release a version for iOS that it would be based off of this version, or at the very least an enhanced 2D version along the same lines of their Final Fantasy [$8.99] and Final Fantasy II [$8.99] releases on iOS.
There's a thread in our forums where discussion of this possible upcoming game is taking place, and we'll of course bring you any new information regarding official confirmation of Final Fantasy III for iOS from Square Enix just as soon as we get it.
(Thanks to Joystiq and Siliconera for bringing the post in our forums to our attention!)
Last month we posted about how One Man Left would be bringing some sort of multiplayer mode to their popular arcade game Tilt to Live [$2.99/Lite/HD]. Since then we’ve learned a few more details about this mode, and now have a video of it in action. This multiplayer update will involve cooperative play inside the ¡Viva la Turret! expansion pack which hit the game back in December.
Dubbed ¡Viva la Co-op!, players can connect locally via WiFi or Bluetooth with one person manning the turret while the other navigates the danger-laden play field collecting jewels to increase the collective score and also delivering pickups that will refresh the turret for your buddy when it has run out of steam. These roles can be reversed during a game depending on who gets to the turret first after one has been exhausted.
The ¡Viva la Co-op! expansion has already been submitted to Apple and is just awaiting approval, which One Man Left hopes will happen before the end of the month. This multiplayer expansion has also been hinted at for the iPad version of the game Tilt to Live HD, which just received the ¡Viva la Turret! update earlier this month, although we haven't heard anything official and it would likely take some tweaking to get things right on the larger screen. Drop by the thread in our forums for discussion on Tilt to Live and keep your eyes on your update button for the ¡Viva la Co-op! expansion that should hit in the next week or so.
If you’re looking for some acrobatic reptile fun this weekend, head on over to the App Store where Hurdle Turtle [Link] has gone free for today, Saturday the 19th, only. Hurdle Turtle is an endless running game with cute pixel graphics and retro chip-tunes that launched last November. The initial version of Hurdle Turtle was fairly bare bones, with just one environment to run in and one character to play as. Still, something about this silly turtle doing double front flips over hurdles while running faster and faster down a track captured the hearts of both myself and fellow TouchArcader Eli Hodapp.
Then in December, Hurdle Turtle was updated to version 2.0 with a ton of new features, and the whimsy of this game could be ignored no more. We promptly reviewed version 2.0 which featured 3 different environments and 11 turtle characters to choose from. These were tied to a clever unlock system based on distance ran, which gave a more compelling reason to continue playing beyond just reaching a higher score. Game Center and OpenFeint are used in tandem for online leaderboards and achievements.
Check out this new trailer developer Holmade Games put together that shows off the new features of Hurdle Turtle 2.0:
With today’s free promotion, Holmade Games is running a contest over on their blog that will result in Hurdle Turtle swag for some lucky winners if the game can reach the top 50 free games chart. While the allure of free Hurdle Turtle gifts is strong, at the very least everybody should give this game a download while it’s free. It doesn’t do anything drastically different from your average endless runner, but it’s well put together, cute, silly, and most importantly fun. There’s a discussion thread in our forums for the game, and make sure to grab Hurdle Turtle while it’s free for the rest of today.
Fans of CAVE’s manic shooters get ready for some exciting news. The developer has just announced over their Twitter that their next iOS game will be none other than the oft-requested Deathsmiles. Deathsmiles is a departure from their traditionally vertical scrolling shooters, like Espgaluda II [$8.99/Lite] and Dodonpachi Resurrection [$8.99/Lite], and scrolls horizontally. However, the intense bullet hell, humongous bosses, and general over-the-top nature of their games is present.
We literally have zero information on what the iOS version will contain, but check out this trailer for the Xbox 360 Deluxe Edition that was just released in Europe to get an idea of what Deathsmiles is all about:
Keep your eye on this space as we expect CAVE to send out an official press release detailing their upcoming launch of Deathsmiles, but we were so excited for the news that we just had to get the announcement out there. CAVE is currently showing off the game in playable form at a media event in Japan, and they have also announced that a new mode called Bug Battle will be coming to their excellent dual-stick shooter Mushihimesama Bug Panic [$4.99/Lite] soon, and we’ll have details on this as well just as soon as we get them.
Update: As was posted in the Upcoming Games thread in our forums and thanks to the blog Andriasang.com, we now have some screens from Deathsmiles for the iPhone. Without further ado, take a look:
Over at that same blog, there are a few shots of the new Bug Battle mode for Mushihimesama Bug Panic. This new mode will make available multiplayer locally over Bluetooth or online via 3g or Wifi:
We'll have more details on these developments from CAVE once they've officially sent out some info. In the meantime enjoy the screenshots and keep your eye on TouchArcade and the Upcoming Games forum for the latest on Deathsmiles and the multiplayer update for Mushihimesama Bug Panic.
Yesterday, Telltale Games held an event in San Francisco where they announced a slew of new titles for this coming year. The main focus of this event was to offer hands-on time with the console versions of their upcoming Jurassic Park game (which looks fabulous, by the way), so unfortunately there wasn’t anything actually running on iOS devices that isn’t available already in the App Store. Still, there were some pretty exciting games announced, and as we march closer to events like Comic-Con and E3 we’ll start to see more tangible bit from these games.
Monkey Island Tales 2-5 - Back in December, Telltale launched Monkey Island Tales 1 HD [$6.99], the first episode in their Tales of Monkey Island series reboot. Like its PC, Mac, and console counterparts, the iPad version of Tales was well received by customers and critics alike. We awarded the game 4.5 stars in our review, and named it one of the Best iPad Games of 2010. So not surprisingly, we’ll be seeing the remaining 4 episodes of Monkey Island Tales trickle out onto the iPad over the coming months. Beginning in March we’ll see part 2, and if everything runs smoothly with Apple’s approval blessings, we’ll see the remaining episodes released by May.
Back to the Future Episode 2 - Get Tannen - Just a couple of days ago, an iPad version of Back to the Future Episode 1 [$6.99] launched in the App Store, and we thoroughly enjoyed it in our review. At right about that same time, Episode 2 was released for the PC and Mac version of the game. While there was no official word from Telltale or a playable version of Episode 2 running on the iPad, I think it’s pretty safe to say we’ll see it appear in the App Store soon. We’ll let you know when we get official confirmation or a release date, but until then check out the trailer for Back to the Future Episode 2 - Get Tannen:
The Walking Dead- The incredibly popular graphic novel series that was turned into a hit television show is now being adapted for the video game realm. Telltale has inked a deal with series creator Robert Kirkman to bring The Walking Dead to just about every gaming space imaginable, with multiple titles planned to span across the next few years. There’s really no solid information about what the games will entail, but Telltale CEO Dan Connors promises that fans of the franchise will be really excited by how Telltale delivers such a rich story in video game form. Expect a lot more about The Walking Dead games when this year’s Comic-Con rolls around.
Hector: Badge of Carnage Series - Last June saw the release of Hector: Badge of Carnage Ep 1 [$3.99] for iPhone and iPod touch. Hector: Badge of Carnage is a modernized point and click adventure game that is full of raunchy dialogue, adult themes, and satisfying gameplay. We really liked Hectorin our review, only noting that it was a fairly brief game with a cliffhanger of an ending, and we couldn’t wait to see what happens in subsequent episodes. When we interviewed Kevin Beimers from Straandlooper (the creators of Hector) last year at WWDC, we learned that Episode 1 was in the works for the iPad and that Episode 2 production had begun as well, though with their somewhat small team and the nature of hand-drawn animation it might take a while before we saw more from Hector.
Yesterday, Telltale Games announced they have partnered with Straandlooper to help bring the Hector series to complete fruition. Since point and click adventure games, episodic content, and digital distribution are all things that are synonymous with Telltale Games’ core beliefs, the Hector series seems a naturally fit for them. The first order of business is getting Episode 1 on the iPad, as well as PC and Mac, this Spring. By the end of the year we should be seeing Episodes 2 & 3 on iPhone, iPad, PC and Mac. I know I’m not alone in being excited to hear more from the Hector series, and I really can’t wait to check out the future episodes. We’ll let you know when Hector: Badge of Carnage Ep 1 drops on the iPad, and bring you any further information on the new episodes as soon as we get it.
Puzzle Agent 2 - With the surprise success of Puzzle Agent after it released on PC and Mac last June, and on the App Store with an iPhone version [$4.99/Lite] and iPad version [$6.99/Lite], it’s not surprising to see that a sequel will be coming. But just because I’m not surprised doesn’t mean I’m not incredibly excited. We really liked the iOS version of Puzzle Agentwhen we reviewed it in September, and the game’s story ended in a way that left us wanting more. I’m a huge fan of Graham Annable who did the artwork for Puzzle Agent, and I loved the dark humor in the game. There aren’t too many details about Puzzle Agent 2 other than it will be coming this Summer, but check out this teaser video to whet your appetite a bit:
There are some other odds and ends to note from yesterday’s event. Of course the Jurassic Park game is looking fantastic, but is currently only officially announced for Mac and PC. Telltale notes that it is planned for other platforms, but didn’t get into specifics. Based on their history though, it’s pretty safe to assume that this 5 part episodic game will appear on the iPad at some point, much like Back to the Future has. Telltale also announced another comic partnership with the Fables IP, but again no specific details were laid out for this and we’ll definitely hear more come Comic-Con time. Finally, they briefly announced that their classic King’s Quest franchise will be receiving a reboot similar to that of the Monkey Island series. As a huge fan of both King’s Quest and Space Quest as a kid, I’m really excited for this announcement, and we’ll bring you any solid information on this as it becomes available.
As you can see, Telltale Games will be mighty busy in 2011, and a lot of that should result in some exciting iOS titles. You can check out our Upcoming iPhone/iPod touch and Upcoming iPad sections in our forum where our members will likely be discussing these future games, and we’ll keep you updated on new information about these titles throughout the year.
Fruit Ninja [.99 / HD / Lite] is a popular game. The touch-based fruit slicing joint has been downloaded to the staggering tune of six million times over its lifespan on the App Store. That’s a lot of fruit death, right? In fact, Halbrick has a number on said fruitricide: 150 billion fruits have met their Primordial Maker since the game’s debut.
In a recent press release, Halfbrick announced the following, an inarguably cute way to make “amends” for all the fruit death: its teaming up with the non-profit Fruit Tree Planting Foundation and sponsoring a fruit orchard in a low-income community in order to help the people there live just a tad bit better. Halfbrick notes that we won’t see the...fruits...of their charitable donation just yet, but it’ll keep an eye on the orchard and give updates about it on its Web site.
Question: surely billions of aliens have been killed in the DOOM series to date. What can id Software donate to the Martians? Less taxing Phobos teleportation machines? Cadavers?
This week, TouchArcade attended EA's "Swing Into Spring" game event in in New York and had a chance to spend a bit of quality time with some upcoming titles from both EA and Chillingo. And, while we can't (yet) talk about everything we saw, here's the goods on the open-for-discussion titles.
• Fight Night Champion from EA
Fight Night Champions is the first installment of the Fight Night series, which debuted on consoles in 2004, to appear on iOS. Incidentally, the Fight Night series is the successor to EA's 1998 console series Knockout Kings.
Fight Night Champions is a boxing title set for a simultaneous iOS and console debut on March 1st. The game presents a virtual boxing match, rendered in 3D with four possible camera angles (sorry folks, no photos allowed). You can create your own highly customizable boxer or rebuild a legend like Iron Mike and use this boxer to move up the ranks -- fight to fight, ring to ring.
A very cool aspect of the game is its control system. The screen is invisibly divided into quad hit-zones, where a tap in each zone executes a different move, and a swipe from zone-to-zone triggers additional, directionally keyed moves. And there are hidden moves to -- illegal moves. These you can specify for your character in its configuration screen, but you have to figure out the gestures on your own. How awesome is that?
There are several venues in which to compete: the Staples Center is for real, and the rest are fictional, some of which are rather elaborately arranged. Matches across these stadiums can be customized as far as number of rounds, round length, difficulty, etc.
Local WiFi and Bluetooth multiplayer is provided. But not so with online leaderboards.
Fight Night Champion looks awesome and is structured such that gamers that are a little more casual on the sports side -- like me -- can get enjoyment out of the title.
• Battlefield Bad Company II from EA
Not much to say here, but the game got an update last week that corrected various multiplayer bugs and upped the multiplayer games from four to six players.
High Speed 3D is a new racer on the way for both iPhone and iPad (universal) that offers glossy visuals and a variety of playmodes to mix up the action across 20 tracks in all. As far as playmodes, there's the standard Career mode, in addition to a number of Quick Play modes, including Get The 1st Place, a quick race to the goal; Drift King, a chance to paint the track with rubber; and Crash Them All!, a destruction derby of sorts.
We are told that there's about another month of performance tuning and polishing on this one before it lands in the App Store. Even so, High Speed 3D played very well and looks to be a fun time for fans of arcade style racers.
• Collision Effect from Chillingo
Collision Effect is an iPad game that puts celestial objects of various colors on the screen and it's your task to merge the like colored balls together. In Action Mode, the balls are moving, and a collision between two blobs of differing colors is a bad thing. In Puzzle Mode, they start off stationary, and your tap upon one ball begins the gathering of its like-colored kindred -- but clever strategy and timing is needed to keep balls of different colors from colliding. It's a simple, yet challenging, mechanic done up with nice particle effects.
We should see Collision Effect arrive sometime next month.
• Play Kalei from Chillingo
We took a look at this clever graphical matching title last month at Macworld and really liked what we saw.
The basic idea in Play Kalei is that you’re presented with a high quality photograph and a random point of the picture is highlighted in a circular window in the upper corner of the screen. The catch is that the window highlighting the point in the photograph is shown as if you’re looking at it through a kaleidoscope, and you must find that particular point by matching the kaleidoscope view in a second window by sliding your finger around the screen.
Play Kalei is set to arrive in mid-March.
• Food Processing from Chillingo
Here's one for the iPad that takes inspiration from Fruit Ninja, but adds a bit of complexity and a dose of whimsy to the formula. The game puts you in front of a conveyor belt ferrying food across the screen and its your job to slice it up properly -- and properly is the twist. Each item must be sliced in a particular fashion, a skill you'll need to learn along the way. And, all the while, a hard rock soundtrack keeps you bouncing.
Food Processing should hit the App Store later this month.
All of the Chillingo titles listed here will feature Crystal integration for score and achievements tracking.
Last month we reviewedMad Skills Motocross [99¢], a fast-paced 2D side-scrolling motocross racing game. We enjoyed the title quite a bit as it had sharp graphics, plenty of different tracks, a nice online challenge system through OpenFeint, and above all else a stellar physics system. One problem many players commented on though was the immense difficulty of completing the single player campaign. The game started out simple enough as it eased you into the gameplay mechanics, but about a third of the way through the career mode the difficulty ramped up pretty quickly, and due to the requirement of completing every race in a division before unlocking a new division many players found themselves unable to progress.
Developer Turborilla heard these cries for help, and have rushed in to save the day with the latest update to Mad Skills Motocross. There is now an Amateur difficulty setting in the options that offers an easier AI opponent to race against, and your bike can withstand more damage before breaking as well. If you liked the original difficulty don’t worry, as the Pro option keeps things the same as they were before. Also, a previous update made it so you only needed to beat all but 2 of the races in a division to unlock the next, thus making it easier to move on if you got stuck on a particularly hard race.
Besides these difficulty tweaks, Turborilla has added an interesting new feature that adds to the competitive nature of Mad Skills Motocross. Before, you could set a time on a race and then send off a challenge to one of your OpenFeint friends for them to try and beat. Now, you can actually choose any of the scores on the leaderboards and take a crack at beating that person’s ghost. Or you can simply watch the replay of how that score was attained, possibly gleaning some tips from how they completed the course. This new functionality is a really nice addition to such a score-focused game, and it makes competing with the best players in the world more accessible to everyone.
I liked Mad Skills Motocross before, but I do admit I had my fair share of moments where I felt like throwing my iPhone across the room due to the difficulty. The new Amateur mode makes things significantly easier, and consequently more fun, and the Pro mode is still there for when I feel ready to take on that challenge. The new ability to challenge ghosts from the leaderboards adds a whole new layer of competitiveness to the game, and I even enjoy just watching some of the top times and marveling at the skill of those elite players. With these past two updates, Mad Skills Motocross has easily become my favorite racing game of this kind, and if you haven’t checked it out yet now is the perfect time as it’s currently on sale for just 99¢ for a limited time.
Early last month we took a look at Bug Heroes [$1.99], a dual stick shooter of sorts that borrows gameplay elements from many different genres. In the game, you play as one of three bugs, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. You must switch between them to protect your pile of food, and dish out punishment to the invaders looking to steal it. We went in to detail in our review:
The bulk of Bug Heroes takes place in the Adventure mode. Here you battle in 4 different environments using a combination of three different characters as you defend a stockpile of food from an onslaught of hungry insect enemies. Money is collected as you defeat enemies which can then be used on various types of upgrades. You can add several different types of turrets to your food pile to protect it while you are away, or you can buy better weaponry to increase the offense of each character. Gameplay involves exploring each environment to collect additional food to add to your stockpile while simultaneously fending off enemies. The game ends when all three characters die or your entire food reserve is depleted. ...Read More
The 1.1 update landed mere moments ago which adds new abilities, makes a whole bunch of balance changes, a ton of bug fixes, and... adds universal compatibility as well as Game Center.
Bug Heroes was an absolutely fantastic game in its original 1.0 release, and now that it's received this hefty update, you're really running out of excuses to not give this game a try. The way it blends dual stick shooter, castle defense, and RPG elements is really clever, and I still stand by what we said in our review: Bug Heroes makes it very difficult to go back to playing a standard dual stick shooter.
• Fight Night Champion from EA
High Speed 3D is a new racer on the way for both iPhone and iPad (universal) that offers glossy visuals and a variety of playmodes to mix up the action across 20 tracks in all. As far as playmodes, there's the standard Career mode, in addition to a number of Quick Play modes, including Get The 1st Place, a quick race to the goal; Drift King, a chance to paint the track with rubber; and Crash Them All!, a destruction derby of sorts.
Early last month we took a look at Bug Heroes [
