According to gaming blog Andriasang.com, the latest issue of Japanese game magazine Famitsu has revealed that Square Enix is working on two follow-up titles to last year’s iOS exclusive RPG Chaos Rings [$12.99/HD].
The first is called Chaos Rings Omega, which is listed as coming out for the iPhone. It was first assumed that this was a sequel to the original Chaos Rings, but in fact Famitsu details that it will be a prequel that is set before the first game. Surprisingly, it also says that the game is set to release in May, though this would be for the Japanese version and an English translated version would likely come sometime after.
Square Enix has also placed a teaser ad in Famitsu for a Chaos Rings II, which would make it appear that there actually is a proper sequel in the works.
Sadly, that’s all anybody knows at the moment, though we’ll be following this closely as Japanese blogs will no doubt start posting page scans from the new Famitsu along with more information. We definitely enjoyed Chaos Rings a lot last year in our review, and the game has done very well for Square Enix on the App Store. It’s certainly no surprise to hear that more games are coming in the series, but it’s exciting nonetheless to know that new details will be emerging in the near future.
We’ll of course keep you up to date on any new developments regarding these new Chaos Rings titles, and there’s a thread in our forums where you can discuss and speculate these upcoming games with your fellow gamers.
You may recall back in March when we sat down with SuperMono Studios during GDC to check out their fancy new 3D engine that they had spent the past 7 months or so building from the ground up for future mobile games. At the time, the two man SuperMono team of Tak Fung and “Beardy Dave” Ferner had intentions of creating a new racing title using said engine, and they’re finally ready to share the first tidbits of this game which will be called Drive Forever.
First of all, as you can see from the first screenshots of the game, Drive Forever has a really unique look to it. The developers set out to create something that didn’t look like your typical racing game, and they’ve certainly achieved that with the minimalist approach and bright Tron-like neon lighting. After seeing the demo for the engine used in Drive Forever, I have no doubt that it will be running silky smooth and using some impressive lighting effects as well.
More interesting to me than the fancy shmancy visuals, however, is the creative concept behind the game. Drive Forever won’t be a typical racing game, and in fact will be more of an endless, semi-randomly generated driving game where the bulk of the content will come from user-created levels. It’s a bit hard to explain, so here’s how Beardy Dave puts it on the SuperMono blog post where the game was announced: (more...)
Ever since Gameloft's Order & Chaos Online showed up for download on the Canadian App Store this morning, our forums have gone wild with speculation regarding gameplay, how the IAP works, and everything else. Since the release is Canada-only right now, and the game isn't free, it has left all of our "Canadian" forum members on the outs anxiously awaiting impressions from the few actual Canadians out there. Consider this post a continuation from the one from earlier today, so check that out first if you haven't already.
I decided to play an orc ranger because I wanted to play on the chaos side of things and I've always been partial to ranger-like classes in general. Starting the game, you're inundated with various tips, all of which will be incredibly obvious to anyone who has played an MMORPG before. The early quests, like most (all?) MMORPG's walk you through how the basics of the game works, and the path my orc ranger took involved slaying pigs, killing crabs, and various other low-level kill quests before I decided to go exploring.
Retro revival studio DotEmu has just sent word that they have kicked off a 48-hour sale on five of their iPhone titles. From today until the 28th the following titles will be available for just $0.99.
64th Street: A Detective Story is a Double Dragon-style beat 'em up arcade fighter that was originally released back in 1991. The iOS version of 64th Street is wrapped in an emulator, providing the original graphics and an authentic game experience as compared to the arcade release, but with customizations that make it appropriate for the iOS platform.
During a walk with his girlfriend, a boy is ambushed by agents of a mysterious crime organization and is shot to death. Now, as a wandering spirit with the ability to possess most others, he is summoned by his girlfriend's father to save her from these criminals
The game is a run-and-jump platformer that sets itself apart due to its "possess anyone" mechanic. You start out as a Casper-cute ghost and make your initial possession. Then, when you die, your ghost pops out and you can take control of most any character onscreen. Your fighting abilities depend upon who you've possessed, so it mixes the game up nicely.
Earth Defense Force is a classic horizontal shoot ‘em up that made an appearance in both arcades and on the SNES in the early 90's.
The alien Azyma Empire, threatens to destroy the Earth with the Orbital Buster, a large computerized space satellite. The Earth's only hope lies in the recently developed XA-1 spaceships held under the organization known as E.D.F: Earth Defense Force. You are the pilot in command!
This iOS version features two game modes: Arcade and Freeplay, and also boasts support for both D-pad and touch controls. Online leaderboards are also a part of the package, as well as Game Center integration.
Golvellius: Valley of Doom is a 1987 RPG that was originally released for the Japanese MSX home computer system and later brought to the Sega Master System.
The iPhone version of the game was ported by DotEmu with iPhone UI modifications as well as an intelligent save system.
A significant snag has hit the development of Dream:scape, the promising Unreal Engine-powered adventure game that’s been making waves with those of us who like our visuals crisp and our worlds open. According to the game’s creator, the title flat-out won’t operate on third-generation devices or even the original iPad -- but there’s still hope it will be able to.
"So I have finally, after dozens of painstaking hours, accepted that my game, dream:scape, will never run on the iPad 1, iPod Touch, or iPhone 3GS,” he wrote on the official UDK message board. A vicious memory bug, which makes the game crash when a build-up occurs, is to blame.
At the time of writing, “kamequazi” wasn’t sure if he could just release the title for the iPhone 4 and iPad 2. It was an obvious point of concern in the post, as it sounds like the title is currently worming its way through the Apple review process.
The good news here is that, yeah, you can submit a targeted game. “I did get the go-ahead from Apple to release the targeted version,” he wrote in an update. He followed up, adding, “Ironically, however, I did connect with a programmer who feels confident that we can get D:Srunning on all relevant devices.”
“So, while he works on that, I am adding a few new gameplay elements. There will be a new trailer in the next week or so, and when D:S finally does get released it will be better than ever.”
Who knew awesomeness could come from such a bummer moment?
At some point early this morning, Gameloft released their MMORPG Order & Chaos Online on to the Canadian App Store, which seems to be standard operating procedure for a wide-scale "beta" of sorts. Ngmoco and other similar developers all have used the Canadian market to test out how their servers are running and how the game is performing, so it isn't out of the ordinary by any stretch of the imagination to see Gameloft doing something similar.
I've downloaded the game and put around an hour of playtime into it so far, and in the process discovered quite a few of the things we were wondering from the trailers Gameloft previously released. First off, the game isn't freemium which may be a relief for some. It's launching at $6.99, which includes three months worth of subscription to the game. Following that, you can subscribe for a single month for 99¢, three months for $1.99, or six months for $2.99.
Straight up: I’m not a soccer fan because honestly, it's hard to be a soccer fan in the USA. The whole non-stop nature of the game makes it really difficult for TV stations to inject advertising into the game, so aside from gym class soccer has yet to catch on.
We cool now? Great. Because here’s the thing about Soccer Superstars 2011 Pro [$4.99]: it’s not a simulation title, and it’s not an all-out action sports title, either. I like to frame it as a mix of the two, as it somehow marries the spirit of the actual game of soccer with video games antics, whimsy, and some light RPG elements that the Superstars series is known for.
For me, this is a great thing. I don’t need to know squat about soccer to dig what is being done in Soccer Superstars 2011, just like how I didn’t need to know anything about the actual game of hockey to be to enjoy the NES classic Blades of Steel. (Also similar to Baseball Superstars where you need to know nothing about baseball to get immersed in training up your super batter.)
I think you get the gist, but just in case, think of Soccer Superstars as a lean arcade kind of sports title. You can only pick from a few teams, none of which offer real players or likenesses from the actual sport. In fact, each team sports a whacked out super player who can, quite literally, kick flaming balls into goals with the touch of a button.
Doing that requires a simple press of one of the three-to-four action buttons displayed at all times on the game’s not-so-beautiful HUD. There’s also a virtual analog stick present one the screen, too, which is how you move around your dudes on the field. Sadly, much like last year's iteration of the game, the controls aren't as precise as we wish they were as the virtual joystick just flat out feels clunky at times.
The fundamentals of soccer are all present and accounted for on the face buttons, which in turn, keeps the game simple: you can only, really, dribble and shoot as well as steal and tackle. Holding some of these buttons increases the strength of a move.
You get your standard amount of players on the field, all of which have assignments, so you’ll need to shift from character to character as you would in a simulation soccer game as the ball bounces around. Also, each person on the field also has his own set of stats, so you’ll need to keep an eye on what player can do what the best.
I’d like to say that there’s some sort of grand strategy to the play, but if there is, I haven’t discovered it. Most of my matches -- and they’re all lightning fast -- have been “pass and shoot” fests, which is to say, I’ve just been driving the ball to the hole and dominating.
So, I can with without a care. Frankly, I think this is stellar; I don’t want to bother with elaborate defensive or offensive strategies I don’t want to think soccer. I’d rather just put the ball in the hole. This game allows me to do that. Instant bliss!
I can see this being a problem with people who require deeper experiences, so do keep away from this one if being a great Pitch Commander is necessary. Thankfully, there are tons of incredibly in-depth soccer simulators such as Football Manager Handheld 2011 [$9.99] that are worth a look if you want something substantially less simple.
Of course, there’s more: Soccer Superstars boasts a variety of different campaign type modes ranging from a full season to exhibition to Cup matches and the like. The season mode in particular is pretty hip: you play as a coach charged with construction the best team possible, and you’ll get a range of tools to do so. Similar to an RPG, you’ll train your players, exploit their strengths, and even go out to get other game-breaking special characters who can ... oh, I don’t know, kick lightning balls into nets turned arcade voids.
The presentation of players is done in this really cute throwback SNES-style, full of color and rich with life. It lacks fine detail as a result, though.
One thing I really would like to see would be an improved out of game UI -- the in-game menus are labyrinthine. Though this may be a design trap constructed around getting you to believe that you need to sink real cash into the Gamevil's weird credits system, but just like the other Superstars games, this isn't required to enjoy Soccer Superstars at all.
Overall, I really like what I’ve seen so far. If you enjoy soccer, or at least, want to get your game on in a cute, lighter kind of action-arcade soccer marriage, check this out. It might lack the fist-to-face antics of Blades of Steel, but it’s satisfying in its quirky, not-so-serious kind of way.
Yesterday, Sony officially entered the tablet market by unveiling two new tablet devices for release this Fall. As everybody and their mother are rushing into the tablet market to compete with Apple’s iPad after its unprecedented success, it’s not surprising to see one of the largest electronic makers in the world throw their hat into the ring.
What is surprising to me, however, is the decidedly different approaches each of Sony’s new tablets are taking compared to the rest of the crowd. And from a gamer’s perspective, the fact that both tablets are powered by Tegra 2 chips and will be the first tablets to officially be “PlayStation Certified” is definitely intriguing.
The first of Sony’s tablets, currently being called the S1, carries a 9.4” screen that’s only slightly smaller than the iPad’s. Unlike the iPad and most other similar tablets, the S1 features a tapered design that’s thicker at the top and gets skinnier towards the bottom, which Sony claims is more comfortable and is “like holding a magazine”.
Their second tablet, the S2, is a much more radical design and isn’t much like a tablet at all actually. It’s a clamshell design similar to a Nintendo 3DS, with 5.5” screens on both the upper and lower halves. The screens can work in unison to display content or can work independently to perform two different functions, like having game controls on the lower screen while showing the actual gameplay on the top, just like the 3DS.
Each tablet will run on Android 3.0 Honeycomb which is a special version of Android specifically designed for tablets. They will be able to do most of the types of things you would expect tablets to do involving accessing media and the internet, but what interests me the most is how these new devices will factor in regards to gaming.
As stated, both tablets are PlayStation Certified which means they will include support for the PlayStation Suite service which we reported on back in January. The PlayStation Suite allows PlayStation Certified Android devices to run a library of PlayStation 1 titles, and was first implemented into Sony’s own Experia Play phone which is largely known as the “PlayStation Phone”.
We speculated at the time that PlayStation Suite was announced that it would be possible the service could eventually come to iOS, and Sony executive Kaz Hirai further affirmed this possibility by stating that they have a “completely open stance” as to which devices and carriers the service may end up on.
Despite this, however, I don’t suspect we’ll ever see the PlayStation Suite come to iOS. First of all are the hurdles we outlined in our article on the subject, namely the fact that Sony would need to give the OK to whatever comes to the PSS service on top of Apple’s already strict approval process, and the need to have devices running PSS be PlayStation Certified, which Apple would most likely have a problem with.
Beyond this though, Sony’s new devices are not only aimed at the consumer tablet market at large but are also specifically aimed at the mobile gaming market with their emphasis on being able to run games and being PlayStation Certified. It’s obvious that Sony wants a piece of the mobile gaming pie that is currently being dominated by the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and 3DS. To offer a flagship service like the PlayStation Suite to one of their biggest competitors would seem like an odd move to say the least. Although, Sony has been known to make some odd moves in the past, so I guess anything is possible.
At any rate, these new devices are pretty interesting, and it will be fun to see how this all plays out over the course of this year and next. Let’s not forget that Sony’s new PSP is on the horizon as well, which throws yet another wrinkle into this matter. If one thing’s for certain, there’s never been a better time to be a mobile gamer as the mobile gaming scene continues to expand and evolve at an incredible pace.
Back in March, developer Raptisoft released their newest iOS title called Robot Wants Kitty [Free]. It was a greatly improved remake of the original Flash game by Hamumu where you played as a robot who must negotiate a complex level to ultimately end up with the grand prize of a kitty cat. The game employed a Metroidvania style where you explored one large level and had to gain access to new areas by exploring and discovering new items and abilities for your character.
The iOS version of Robot Wants Kitty included much better graphics and 5 brand new levels in addition to the original Flash version level. 6 levels may not sound like a lot, but each one is fairly large and complex and can take quite a while to fully complete. Also, there is a full level editor included that lets you create your own levels using elements from the game, ensuring a high replay value beyond the initial 6 levels.
As part of a promotion with OpenFeint, Robot Wants Kitty is currently free for one day only. We thoroughly enjoyed the game in our initial review, and it really is a must-download while free if you don’t already own it. I have a particular fondness for iOS platformers, and Robot Wants Kitty is one of my favorites. Raptisoft is also currently working on an online sharing feature for user created levels, so if you grab the game now and get to work on making some of your own levels you’ll be able to share them with fellow gamers in the not-too-distant future.
Earlier this month Xpect Games released their ambitious post-apocalyptic racing game Race After 1977 [$2.99] into the App Store. After a long development cycle and many months of anticipation for the game, Race After 1977 ultimately left us disappointed with its poor technical performance and awkward feeling physics. The frame rate was horribly choppy and the handling of the vehicles felt floaty and unnatural, especially when coming into contact with other cars or the environment. Braking was also nearly unusable, as just a quick tap on the brakes would bring your car to a screeching halt rather than send you into a nice drift around a corner, letting the rest of the racers zoom on by while you sat and stared.
It was really unfortunate too, as Race After 1977 had a really appealing style and great visuals. The tracks had a wonderful open world feel to them, with multiple pathways, shortcuts, and plenty of jumps to launch from. The 9 available vehicles looked like they were ripped straight from a Mad Max movie, and each had its own unique attributes and handling. The environments had an authentic post-apocalypse feel, and aside from some noticeable pop-in, were impressively expansive. There really was a great game in here somewhere, but the initial flaws in Race After 1977 prevented anyone from really seeing it.
Xpect quickly took the negative feedback to heart, and has spent the last few weeks righting the wrongs that came in the release version. Today the fruits of that effort are available as an update to Race After 1977, and for the most part they’ve done an excellent job of whipping the game into shape. The frame rate is now 10 times better than before, though I do still get the occasional hiccup. These don’t detract from the gameplay too much though, and the game runs smoothly the majority of the time allowing me to concentrate on the race rather than compensate for dropped frames.
An even bigger improvement than the frame rate is the physics system which has undergone some serious tweaking. Cars now feel like they have a much more natural weight and are actually driving on the game’s terrain rather than just floating above it. Running into other cars or objects also feels more how it should, though it can still be a bit wonky at times. Finally, braking has been tuned nicely, and it’s much easier to send your car into a drift around tight corners without accidentally coming to a complete stop.
I don’t want to overstate the effect of this latest update, as there is still plenty of room for further improvement in Race After 1977. Any of the touch control options work great but the tilt controls still feel pretty unusable to me. I’d like the occasional hiccups in the frame rate to get ironed out even further, and it would be wonderful if the pop-in of certain track elements could be fixed. But it’s a really thin line between frustrating and fun in a game, and what Xpect has done with this update is taken a game that was initially frustrating and a chore to play and turned it into the largely enjoyable experience that it was meant to be. I’m having a blast playing through the campaign in the game now, whereas before I could only make it through a few races before giving up in frustration.
If you initially tried out Race After 1977 and had similar negative feelings towards it, make sure and update the game and give it another try. You can also check out the impressions from members in our forums for more opinions. Xpect seems committed to making Race After 1977 a great experience for its players, and this first update is a huge step in the right direction. The next planned update will add universal iPad support and special enhancements for the iPad 2, and I’m now looking forward to checking that out when it hits.
Earlier this month, Donut Games released their newest iOS title into the App Store called Chicken & Egg [99¢]. This simple puzzle game featured a theme that was perfect for the upcoming Easter holiday as well as the core components that have become synonymous with many of Donut Games’ previous releases: colorful pixel art, simple mechanics, plenty of levels, and a 3 star grading system.
However, what was most interesting of all about Chicken & Egg were the things that had never graced a Donut Games release before: it was a universal app, had high resolution graphics for iPad and Retina Displays, and used Game Center for online leaderboards and achievements.
This was great news for a number of reasons. As an iPad and iPhone owner, I always appreciate when games are universal as I can use them on either device with just a single purchase. Also, pretty much all of Donut Games' titles have online leaderboards, but they required being pulled out of the game and into the Safari browser in order to view them which was infinitely annoying. Now with Game Center, that isn’t a problem.
So, that’s great for Chicken & Egg and all, but what about the rest of the Donut Games library? Well, they have informed us that every new game going forward will include these new features, but what’s even more impressive is that they’ll be going back and adding them into all of their previous games as well. The first game to be getting the retroactive universal/HD/Game Center treatment is one of the first traffic management games Traffic Rush [99¢].
In fact, while Donut Games is in Traffic Rush tinkering around, they’re taking the opportunity to improve upon the game by adding an entirely new mode called Rail Rush. As you can see from the video below, Rail Rush takes the idea of controlling the speed of various lines of traffic and applies it to trains on a track.
We make no effort to hide the fact that we love Donut Games. Their titles are consistently enjoyable and a great fit for mobile gaming, and with nearly 30 different games under their belt there’s bound to be a little something for everyone. I’m not sure that every single one of their older games will be receiving as robust a package as the new Rail Rush game in Traffic Rush, but I’m definitely excited to have them get universal iPad support and Game Center integration. Anything beyond that is just gravy.
Be on the lookout for the first batch of updates to Donut Games’ back catalog, including the Rail Rush update, to hit in the coming weeks.
One of the more interesting bits of development drama to come out of last year was when Mobile1Up went rogue and decided to port Lemmings to iOS. Sure, it was undoubtedly doomed from the start but it was still incredibly entertaining watching them liveblog the whole process as they ported over their entirely remade Palm OS version of the game. The liveblog mentioned is still online, and still worth reading (start from the bottom) if you're even vaguely interested in what's involved in porting an old game to iOS.
It wasn't much of a surprise that the Lemmings project was served with a cease and desist order from Sony, who is sitting on a number of forgotten retro IP's similar to Lemmings. Regardless, there are two universal constants in the world of gaming: Haters are gonna hate and lawyers are gonna... lawyer? So with the unofficial Lemmings port officially shut down, the developers decided to turn their existing completely rebuilt version of Lemmings into something that's just barely different enough to legally be in the clear.
Enter Caveman [$1.99] and its associated Caveman HD [$3.99]. It's Lemmings right down to its core, except without the actual Lemmings themselves. Given the circumstances, I would have opted for something a little more funny than cavemen, like lawyers, but I suppose it's in Mobile1Up's best interest to not push the issue much further.
It's great to see the whole Lemmings port project reaching a conclusion. If you've been looking for an authentic Lemmings experience but don't mind a bit of a reskin, make sure to give Cavemen a try.
At the beginning of February, Ravenous Games released League of Evil [99¢/Lite], a fast-paced platforming game with a retro look and feel. We liked League of Evil quite a bit in our review, noting its well-designed levels, fantastic pixel art, and solid controls. League of Evil originally came with 54 levels to play through, with several goals to attain on each that offered a nice amount of replay value. Just a couple of weeks following release, the game was updated with 30 additional levels themed after fellow developer Halfbot’s The Blocks Cometh [$1.99], as well as 18 “impossible” levels that came with a brutal degree of difficulty.
Over the weekend, League of Evil received its second substantial content update that brings another new episode filled with 30 brand new jungle-themed levels. This update also brings online leaderboard that join the already implemented OpenFeint achievements. There’s a leaderboard for each of the 4 episodes - Weapons of Mass Destruction, The Blocks Cometh, The Impossible Missions, and Welcome to the Jungle - and once you’ve completed every level in an episode your total completion time for that episode will be uploaded online.
The App Store is a veritable smorgasbord of great platformers, and since release League of Evil has hovered near the very top of the list for me. With all of the new levels from these last 2 updates that have more than doubled the size of the original release, it just keeps getting better. Plus, Ravenous Games has said in our forums that they are currently working on a level editor for League of Evil that will come with the ability to share created levels. There’s no set release for this feature, but the prospect of creating my own levels has me really excited.
If you haven’t yet picked up League of Evil, now would be a great time to do so as it’s supposed to jump up in price with this latest update to $2.99, but as of this writing can still be bought for just 99¢. The price can change at any moment though, so best to act quickly if you’re interested in buying the game, and don’t forget there’s a free lite version to try as well.
When an off-shore oil rig accidentally drills right into the head of a giant red sea creature named Destructopus, the monster awakens to find that its beloved planet Earth is being ravaged with pollution by the human race. To right this wrong, Destructopus does the 2 things he knows best: destroys the many man-made structures that are polluting the environment, and kills the humans that are exploiting nature’s cute and cuddly creatures. Such is the story of the aptly titled Destructopus!, an upcoming game from developer Glitchsoft.
Destructopus! is a side-scrolling arcade game where you’ll control the lumbering red behemoth as he lays waste to anything and everything in his path. Destructopus can use his mighty jaws, claw-like tentacle, or eye laser to destroy the many structures in the game as well as fling around the vehicles and humans on the ground and in the air. It feels like a throwback to the classic arcade game Rampage, with a ton of little details in the environments and many elements to interact with.
Destroying things is not only fun, but will earn Destructopus green orbs which can be used in an in-game shop to purchase upgrades and will also determine how many stars out of 3 you will score for a level. While many of the upgrades can be bought with these green orbs, some of the more interesting sounding ones are only available by in-app purchases, which is kind of a bummer.
We’ve had a preview build of Destructopus! for the past couple of weeks, and have been enjoying it quite a bit so far. The mechanics are pretty simple and at times it can feel a bit button mashy, but causing a huge amount of destruction is very satisfying. Plus, in later levels the enemies increase in quantity and difficulty, requiring quite a bit more strategy and upgrading in order to succeed. Destructopus! has already been approved by Apple and is slated to release on May 3rd. Until then you can check out the discussion of the game in our forums and we’ll take a closer look at this title when it hits the App Store.
Last month, indie developer Ryan Mitchell and his studio Banshee Soft released Mission Europa into the App Store. Combining a deep RPG experience with a first-person shooter, Mission Europa is really unlike anything currently available for a mobile platform like the iPhone. Now you can get a taste of this with the recently released lite version of Mission Europa.
The complete game is spread across 5 episodes and 170 missions, with 50 different levels to explore and at least 50 hours of gameplay. There are a ton of different armor types, equipment, combat skills, and weapons to customize your character with, not to mention an item and equipment creation system that expands that even further. Beyond the impressive single player offering is an online battle arena where you can take your created character into battle against players from all over the world, adding what amounts to endless replay value to the title.
Strictly speaking in terms of content and depth, Mission Europa is unmatched, and the fact that the entire game was built from scratch by one person over the course of 2 years is an insane accomplishment to say the least.
According to gaming blog Andriasang.com, the latest issue of Japanese game magazine Famitsu has revealed that Square Enix is working on two follow-up titles to last year’s iOS exclusive RPG Chaos Rings [$12.99/HD].
One of the more interesting bits of development drama to come out of last year was when 
