Yep, Final Fantasy Tactics will see its App Store re-release this week. The European Square Enix blog dropped an update this morning stating it’ll hit the iPhone and the iPod Touch on Thursday, August 4th at £10.99, which should be around $15.99. An iPad version of the same re-released PS One classic will see a release “later this month,” the blog states.
We’ve been following this one pretty closely as it has creeped through its development cycle. Last week we pointed out that it cleared certification, while in weeks prior we made sure to tell you that the project was once again moving smoothly after several, several, and several soul-sucking delays.
We’ll probably never be exactly sure of what the hold-up has been, but it feels safe to speculate that a lot of it had to do with the implementation of touch and technical and graphical re-turning, of which you can catch a glimpse of in the following footage.
It’s looking as delicious as a protein shake on a hot afternoon, so we’ll definitely get our dirty little hands on it as soon as possible. Stay tuned for more.
Com2uS loves to party, apparently. The App Store publisher and owner of the trademark ‘tower defense’ isn’t above cutting the costs of its games in celebration of every single calendar holiday. But it also drums up weird reasons to price slash its games when there isn’t one on hand. Take now, for example. The publisher is 13 years old now and because of that, it has decided to drop a bunch of its games to 99 cents. Neat, I guess!
Just as a little FYI, these deals started appearing before the weekend and they only extend into this afternoon. That makes today the last day you’ll be able to enjoy these prices... until Com2uS finds something else to celebrate. My cat's birthday is coming up soon, actually. Surely, Hannibal's name day is worth some good ol' fashion impromptu savings, right? You can thank me later.
Kids vs. Goblins is an upcoming tactical action RPG being developed by Stolen Couch Games and being published by Crescent Moon. The crux of the gameplay revolves around controlling the 3 different main characters in the game and utilizing each of their unique sets of magic spells. There will be more than 80 spells in the game, and different situations that arise as you travel across the 7 locations in the game will call for the use of specific spells or tactics.
Stolen Couch has said in our forums that they took a cue from Mika Mobile’s Battleheart [$2.99] in regards to controls in Kids vs. Goblins, with what appears to be a similar line drawing-esque approach to moving and dishing out commands. Since Battleheart is one of the finest games around, I fully endorse this decision. It also employs similar real-time combat, and I’m looking forward to seeing just how deep the magic system is and how extensive the RPG elements are.
At the very least the 3D graphics are sure looking nice, and I’m really liking the general art style and character design used in the game. The developers plan on releasing Kids vs. Goblins in September, and I’m sure we’ll be bringing you plenty more details about the game in the weeks to come.
The line-drawing genre has long been dominated by Firemint's outstanding Flight Control [$0.99 / HD]. It is the standard by which all similar games are inevitably judged, and with good reason -- it's the granddaddy of the genre. But maybe there's room for new games in the market, and in our hearts. It's been over two years since Flight Control was released. Could it be time for a break, time to see other line-drawing games?
If so, you won't go wrong with Chillingo and Infinite Degree'sPollen Count [$0.99 / HD]. It's a game that didn't sell me with screenshots or trailers -- the art is a bit clumsy -- but it comes through where it counts.
By drawing a line on screen from bee A to point B, you direct your bees to collect pollen from flowers and deliver it to the hive. They need to reach both targets without running into anything en route. Though the obvious comparison is Flight Control, this is more in line with Harbour Master [$1.99] - you're moving cargo from place to place with a limited amount of space to deal with. In this case, there are only a few flowers to go around, and often bees are forced to wait in the wings. Managing the scarcity of the flowers adds a layer of strategy to a familiar formula.
Pollen Count distinguishes itself in progression. Rather than throwing down a set of maps for players to challenge themselves on, Infinite Degree has put together a series of unlockable levels that give the game a more traditional difficulty curve. To unlock them, you need to earn at least one star in the previous level. This usually isn't easy, and even the most experienced Flight Control fans will find earning a full three stars a challenge on most levels. Unlocking stages also gives less experienced players something to work toward, if the top of the leaderboard looks completely out of reach.
So how do you keep 24 levels fresh when you're dealing with a single-screen drawing game? Pollen Count handles that challenge by bringing in obstacles, powerups and other clever elements. Spiders, birds and zombees are all out to get your bees. While you're busy guiding them to avoiding those enemies and deliver pollen, you'll find environmental obstacles to deal with. And some bees are just plain picky about the flowers they'll harvest. It all contributes to keeping the game from getting stale.
If you want more, Pollen Count includes Crystal and Game Center achievements to earn and leaderboards to challenge. The iPad version also includes local multiplayer, both co-op and versus, with configurable levels. If you're really dedicated, you can unlock two special modes -- a zom-bee survival mode and an odd 3D racing mode called 999mph -- but neither offers leaderboards.
I wouldn't write Pollen Count off as nothing more than a clone. It makes great use of an established mechanic, and I'd have a hard time holding that against it. Running with an existing idea is an App Store tradition by now -- the important thing is that it's been done well and it's been done respectfully. Pollen Count is a little rough around the edges, but it has the vital element covered: fun, and lots of it. Check it out, and give our discussion thread a buzz.
We originally checked out the first Hungry Shark way back in April of last year, and found it to be a really enjoyable arcade game. You played the role of a shark swimming through several interesting sea environments chomping on lesser sea creatures and humans alike in an effort to satiate your hunger and increase your size. Hungry Shark got more than twice as big with a gigantic Part 2 update that was released a couple of months later, and earlier this year in February they brought the series into the HD realm along with another completely new environment to play through with Hungry Shark Part 3.
Back in June, Hungry Shark developer Future Games of London quietly released new versions of Part 1 and Part 2 with the HD graphics treatment as well as some bonuses available as in-app purchases. All of the various Hungry Shark games have been available for free for a while barring Part 3 and the all-encompassing Hungry Shark Trilogy HD for iPad. To celebrate Shark Week this week, they have temporarily made Part 3 free as well and dropped the iPad game down from $4.99 to 99¢.
There may be a confusingly large number of Hungry Shark games to choose from, but as long as you can figure out which features you need then these games are a ton of fun and totally worth grabbing for free. If you have a Retina Display device, you’ll want to pick up Part 1+ or Part 2+ to take advantage of the high resolution graphics. Owners of 1st and 2nd generation devices will want to grab the original Part 1 or Part 2. If you’re looking to play on the iPad, then the HD trilogy is a steal for just a buck, as it includes all 3 episodes in one app and has high resolution assets. Whichever versions apply to you, make sure to at least pick up one of the Hungry Shark games and assert your oceanic dominance while watching all the cool shows during Shark Week this week.
Back in March, Bow Mobile and Brizo Interactive released their remake of the classic arcade beat ‘em up DoubleDragon [$1.99]. As a huge fan of these kinds of games for most of my life, I actually really enjoyed this new DoubleDragon quite a bit in our review. In fact, the biggest negative for me was the poorly thought out virtual control area that was basically an unnecessary gigantic panel that blocked about a third of the screen. My other problem was the fact that the Game Center integration in the game didn’t seem to be working at all.
Well, several months later and DoubleDragon has received its first update, and at least one of these problems has been partially corrected. Game Center still seems to be defective, but the developers have tweaked the obnoxious control area to be just slightly less obnoxious. The default setting now has the same control panel but it’s translucent, so enemies or deadly pits can still be seen if they’re at the bottom of the screen.
The second option does away with the decorative panel altogether, and just shows translucent buttons only. There’s still about a third of the screen that is basically dead space, most likely to keep a certain aspect ratio of the gameplay screen, but both of these options are much better than they were originally. You can see the new translucent controls in the left screen below, compared to how it was originally on the right. The "no overlay" option can be seen in the large screen above.
Another nice change is an increased hit box for the whip, which actually makes it a usable weapon now. Before it was nearly impossible to line up with an enemy correctly to hit them with the whip, but now, especially with its reach, the whip is a formidable weapon. There are a couple of other minor fixes to round out this update, but the improved control display is definitely the big one. It would really be nice if Game Center could get fixed too, but at least the game keeps track of your high scores and achievements in-game too so you can still get some enjoyment out of them.
If you are a fan of beat ‘em ups and haven’t checked out DoubleDragon yet, now would be a good time as it’s currently on sale for half off at $1.99. Hardcore purists may scoff at the new graphics, but the brawler gameplay is actually really solid and is worth having a look at if you're a fan of the genre.
Yep, Final Fantasy Tactics will see its App Store re-release this week. The European Square Enix blog dropped an update this morning stating it’ll hit the iPhone and the iPod Touch on Thursday, August 4th at £10.99, which should be around $15.99. An iPad version of the same re-released PS One classic will see a release “later this month,” the blog states.
Com2uS loves to party, apparently. The App Store publisher 
