On this week’s bonus episode of The TouchArcade Show, The Bearded One joins me in a delightful conversation with Simutronics’ David Whatley and Nathan Lutz. At the top of the show, we dig into the past of the St. Louis-based studio and look forward as it embraces iOS and expands its inaugural App Store game, Tiny Heroes [$1.99]. We also have a hearty discussion about free-to-play models before we dig into a very special TouchArcade-themed unlock in Tiny Heroes.
This was a really, really fun interview and we think you guys will like it. If you’d like to listen, go ahead via direct download or in-browser streaming below. If you’re feeling froggy, go ahead and subscribe to us on iTunes and the Zune Marketplace.
Sunside Games caught us dead bang this morning with the reveal of some rather impressive visual tech in its upcoming action-adventure game, Crow. In a nutshell, Crow is a guided flight combat game where you, as a crow, collect orbs, power-ups, and take out enemies and bosses in some pretty crazy good-looking environments. In an e-mail exchanged with a Sunside representative, it was lightly compared to Nights into Dreams, if you needed an analog.
Outside of that core experience, there’s a second mode that’ll let you mosey around an open world at your leisure, checking out all the sights Sunside has made in the game’s impressive platform, Radiance.
Purely judging from the press release we got this morning, it seems like Sunside is pretty high on this new-fangled tech. Crow will deliver “unsurpassed visuals and immersions in a fully 3D world, which has never before been experienced in mobile gaming,” the studio wrote. Big words!
We’ll definitely be keeping our eyes on Crow as it hurdles towards release this winter. We expect to get some hands-on time in the coming weeks, and we’ll definitely report back to you whenever we can. Additional screenshots of the game are available on its web site.
On the heels of an epic price-slashing maneuver that saw Pocket Academy and its latest game Grand Prix Story go for a paltry $1.99, the simulation gurus at Kairosoft have murdered the original asking price of Mega Mall Story [$1.99 / Lite] and Hot Springs Story [$1.99 / Lite]. Both titles are $1.99 for a “limited time.” They usually sit at $3.99, so you’ll save a couple of bones if you decide to take the plunge.
And plunge you should, as both of these titles are totally worth the reduced asking price. Earlier this summer, I called Mega Mall Storythe most “complete simulation” from the studio yet. Hot Springs Story, though it requires some effort to push beyond the cultural barrier, is solid, too. (more...)
Spilt Milk Studios’ Hard Lines [Free], a fun line-racing puzzle game with a touch of Snake thrown in for good measure, has received a big ol' new update. Starting now, the game boasts four additional power-ups on top of the pre-existing assortment, two new game modes, a brand-spankingly fresh in-game currency, and an in-game shop to boot. Oh! It’s also free at the moment, though that’ll probably change in the next few hours.
As is the norm nowadays with huge updates, a lot of the new additions speak to a pricing model change for Hard Lines as whole. The in-game currency, “Hard Cash,” can be purchased straight-up with IAP or found in the game as pick-ups. With it, you can upgrade the new power-ups for use in whatever, including presumably the game’s two new modes: Daily Challenge and Lionel’s Hard Cash. The latter mode is an optional paid mode that offers a lot of Hard Cash in return for your investment. The catch? It's 80 bucks. No, really.
Here’s a wild one: Zynga is apparently in talks to do a FarmVille [Free] movie. Speaking with IGN the other day about an actual video game, Toy Story writers Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen teased that they’re in discussions with the mega-publisher to pen the possible flick.These chats seem insanely early, as the duo couldn't even name-drop FarmVille and Zynga, according to IGN, is refusing comment on the matter.
"So, yes, we will continue writing movies. We are also working on several new and very exciting opportunities. We're in conversations with Zynga to do something with one of their brands. Can't really say too much on that front yet, but 'Old MacDonald' didn't have a factory, if you get our drift,” they said. (more...)
Well, by "TouchArcade" I mean "me," but still, I'm representing the rest of the crew the best I can on the mean streets of Austin, TX attending GDC Online. I'll be dropping into sessions, meeting up with developers, and making sure to eat my fair share of Texas-style barbecue.
If you're also attending, or are local to the Austin area and have anything new, cool, or exciting to show me, or if you just want to come say "Hi!" solve this captcha and shoot me an email. Make sure you put "GDC" in the subject somewhere for the sake of my email filters. Alternatively, you can hit me up via Google Talk at the same address, or send me an IM via AIM at ioburn. Both IM protocols forward to my phone, so I should respond fairly quickly.
I'm looking forward to meeting up with everyone this week!
The TouchArcade hive mind has been anxiously anticipating Emotional Robots'Warm Gun since early this year when it was first announced. Since then, we've seen a number of different videos and screenshots which have only served to get us all even more excited about the game. It's actually launching in two different versions, the online-centric Warm Gun [$4.99] which is currently live on the New Zealand App Store, and Warm Gun: Carnival of Bullets, which focuses on single player. We've yet to spot Carnival of Bullets for sale in international App Stores, but something tells me that as soon as someone does, a link will get dropped in the Warm Gun forum thread.
Just for fun, here's the trailer again:
We'll be working up a review for Warm Gun, but since it's an online game, for the full experience we're going to have to wait for the game's community to pick up some steam… So, keep an eye out for that in the next couple of days. In the meantime, if you're excited for Warm Gun, swing by our forums where people will likely be offering up their first impressions as the game slowly is released across international App Stores. Like most New Zealand releases, Warm Gun should be available in the US App Store at 11:00 PM Eastern.
Also, as soon as we spot a link for Warm Gun: Carnival of Bullets, we'll update this post with it.
Update: Warm Gun: Carnival of Bullets [Free] is now available internationally.
Anthill: Tactical Trail Defense [$1.99] from Image & Form is a clever and innovative game which let's you control an ant colony, which is being attacked by various predatory insects. It's a real-time strategy game about insect warfare. You act like a general, overlooking a creepy-crawly battlefield and dictating the strategy for the colony's survival by gathering food, engaging in combat, and collecting artifacts.
You start by drawing a straight or curved line with your finger, which originates from your ant-hill. This represents a pheromone trail for ants to follow. Once you've finished drawing a line, you specify if the new route will be used by workers, soldiers or spitter ants.
Another physics-based puzzler with cute graphics and happy music in the App store, you say? NO WAY! Yes way, if you can wrap your mind around the uniqueness of that concept, then you just might get into Roll in the Hole [99¢/UHD].
You will play the roll of PoPo, a happy-go-lucky fat panda who hoards ice cream. When some jerk gorilla comes along and decides to take his sweets stash, he gets mad (although he doesn't show it) and goes on an adventure to recollect all his lost desserts. For some reason, precision physics also play a role there, even though that makes zero sense in a story context. But I don't play iOS games for the mind-blowing realism, and I'm guessing you don't either.
I have such a love-hate relationship with High Flyer Death Defyer [$4.99 / HD]. On one hand, I love the visually striking graphics which I think complement the sky-diving gameplay beautifully. On the other hand, the poorly done tutorial and lackluster controls hold back High Flyer Death Defyer from being even an above average addition to the genre. Whether you actually decide to pick up this skydiver is going to depend on how much you love graphics over, well, everything else.
At its core, High Flyer Death Defyer is a sky/cave diver with a heavy dose of exploration and collection quests thrown into the mix. You play as Arreon, a member of the Death Defyers: a group of skydiving explorers charged with discovering new islands (and treasure) in a post-apocalyptic world in which the only human cities reside in the sky. At the onset, High Flyer’s story is a bit convoluted and confusing, but as you continue playing through the story, you’ll get a better glimpse of what the heck is going on through the game’s comic book style cutscenes.
This week on the TouchArcade Show, we push through viable conversations about spitting into each other’s mouths to bring you the most exciting and entertaining video game news and oral reviews of the week! At the top we dig into Squids and The Dark Meadow, and then smoothly move into subjects like cat games, good-looking games with crappy mechanics, and other interesting junk that I’m sure you’ll enjoy. This week’s episode is a good one, folks!
If you’d like to give us a listen feel free to do so below via these handy-dandy links that allow for direct download and in-browser streaming. If you want to hear new episodes the second they’re uploaded, subscribe to us for FREE on iTunes and Zune.
Back in early September, the ever-busy Crescent Moon Games announced in our forums that they would be collaborating with Thunder Game Works (of Trenches [99¢/Lite/HD] fame) to bring gamers Evertales, a side-scrolling action-brawler with impressive 3D visuals and a great sense of humor.
You play as one of three unique characters, each of which are past their brawling prime in some fashion, but are nonetheless undeterred from the task at hand which is to eliminate the evil Dark Lord of Darkness. You can get an introduction to these characters as well as a taste of the type of tongue-in-cheek humor in Evertales in the debut trailer for the game:
Evertales is currently humming along in the development process, and both Crescent Moon and Thunder Game Works are shooting for submission for Apple approval sometime this month. It will launch as a Universal app with support for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, Game Center integration, and will support iOS 5 features like iCloud game saves and AirPlay Mirroring. We’ll be looking to see how the final product turns out when Evertales launches sometime in the very near future.
We’ve been looking forward to Emotional Robots debut iOS release Warm Gun since we first caught wind of it way back in January of this year. Then this past July, the anticipation was kicked up a big ol' notch with the release of a proper trailer showcasing Warm Gun running on iOS hardware, and it was an impressive sight.
While the release of that trailer optimistically labeled August as the intended release window, that month promptly came and went with no sign of the game. Emotional Robots did however keep their promise of submitting the game before summer’s end, getting it sent off to Apple on September 22nd. Since then we’ve been waiting to hear of the game’s approval and a proper release date, and now we finally have that.
Roughly three billion years ago, Christopher Columbus sailed across vast ocean and fell off the end of the planet. We celebrate his memory this Monday in the United States, which also means we’re about to get a ton of great App Store deals. For example, Gameloft is throwing a nice little $.99 sale on a small swathe of its titles. This one is particularly interesting, as all of the games on sale usually hover above the four dollar mark.
As far as Zelda clones go, Sacred Odyssey ain’t so bad. So, if you’re really hankering to get in one these savings, we’d suggest you shoot for that one. Here’s our review if you’d like to spend some time reading about it.
On an unrelated but also related note, check this out:
This is exactly why I like going to conventions, you find out about things that otherwise would never appear on your radar otherwise. Following my announcement that I was going to GDC Online, I got oodles of meeting requests. (Oh, hey, and if you're going and haven't contacted me yet, be sure you do that.) Anyway, along with everyone else, CrowdStar contacted me to give me a heads up on what they're doing at GDC Online next week, and I figured I'd pass word along-- As it sounds like it could be a great opportunity for some iOS devs out there, since having a great idea for a game but potentially not the resources to execute that idea seems to be a fairly common theme in game development.
Long story short basically amounts to CrowdStar has raised millions of dollars, and in turn, wants to use that money to invest in upcoming free to play games. They're calling it the StarFund, and from the looks of it, you can pitch them your game idea and potentially receive an investment of upwards of $250,000. As it has been explained to me, the terms of the whole deal are fairly agreeable and vary greatly depending on how completed your game is. For instance, if you approach them with little more than a design document, their percentage is going to be higher than if you've got a nearly-completed game that just needs a kick out the door.
You don't really even need to be at GDC Online to be considered, all you need to do is fill out this form. If you are at GDC, and want to discuss the whole idea face to face with the CrowdStar guys, swing by booth 106 and say hi.
On this week’s bonus episode of The TouchArcade Show, The Bearded One joins me in a delightful conversation with Simutronics’ David Whatley and Nathan Lutz. At the top of the show, we dig into the past of the St. Louis-based studio and look forward as it embraces iOS and expands its inaugural App Store game, Tiny Heroes [$1.99]. We also have a hearty discussion about free-to-play models before we dig into a very special TouchArcade-themed unlock in Tiny Heroes.
On the heels of an epic price-slashing maneuver that saw 
Spilt Milk Studios
Here’s a wild one: 
Well, by "TouchArcade" I mean "me," but still, I'm representing the rest of the crew the best I can on the mean streets of Austin, TX attending 
The TouchArcade hive mind has been anxiously anticipating 
This week on the TouchArcade Show, we push through viable conversations about spitting into each other’s mouths to bring you the most exciting and entertaining video game news and oral reviews of the week! At the top we dig into Squids and The Dark Meadow, and then smoothly move into subjects like cat games, good-looking games with crappy mechanics, and other interesting junk that I’m sure you’ll enjoy. This week’s episode is a good one, folks!
This is exactly why I like going to conventions, you find out about things that otherwise would never appear on your radar otherwise. Following my 
