Halfbrick's marketing wizard and president of Halfbrick Marketing School For The Gifted And Golden-Tongued, Phil Larsen, promised us that more updates to Jetpack Joyride [$.99] were on the way. Again, the magnificent man leaves no room for disappointment. In the latest version of the game, the studio has added two new jetpacks, more costumes, and score-tracking features that'll definitely inspire some ire amongst friends if you rock at joy riding.
To get specific, this update adds the Chrome Plated Afterburner and the Golden Piggy Pack as new additions to the jetpack line-up. Also, you can now dress as "Sensei" from the Fruit Ninja [$0.99 /Â HD /Â Lite]Â series, a silver robot, or even a king in his robes. More importantly, you can now post your scores directly to Twitter and Facebook and enjoy Doodle Jump-style markers in-game that reveal where your friends have croaked. That's actually quite a huge addition, eh?
Jetpack Joyride is still stupid-fun for us. I can't explain it, either. It just has that one, almost indescribable "one more play" appeal. We can't stop. Seriously. Help us.
Putter King Adventure Golf [99¢] is released by Putter King, a company with real indoor miniature golf franchises, so these guys should know how to design a fun and challenging mini-putt experience. We were keen to see how their real-world ideas would translate onto our iOS devices. The good news is: They've done a pretty decent job of it.
This game sports four different modes: Championship mode is a regular single-player round of mini-golf. In Time trial mode, you're racing against the clock to sink the ball in the shortest possible time on any specific unlocked hole. Multi-player mode allows 2 to 4 local players to take turns on the same device (there's currently no online multiplayer). But before you play the other modes, you may want to invest some time on practice mode, to hone your skills. It would be nice if there was a career mode or tournament, to tie multiple games together, but there's currently not.
Back in March, we published a quick preview of the rope-based puzzle game, "Rope Racket" after seeing it demonstrated at GDC and we promised to keep to you posted. Well, it's a few months later than expected, but it's finally been released under the new name: Rope Rescue [99¢/HD] , developed by Untame and published by Chillingo.
In this game, you control a colorful parrot, who must drag a length of rope around the screen, to free a baby parrot stuck inside a cage. But there's a catch. Before you can pull the cage door open, the rope must wrap around (or at least touch) every wheel on the level. You only have a certain amount of rope available, so the challenge is to identify the most efficient route to wrap your rope around the various gears with your finger.
One of our very favorite platforming games here in the TouchArcade Mothership is Ravenous Games' League of Evil [$1.99/Lite], which was released and reviewed by us this past February. The charming pixel art and kick ass chiptunes created a modern-retro aesthetic that's right up our alley, and the virtual controls are amongst the finest we've ever seen on the iOS platform. The game can be tough as nails sometimes, but in that good "please sir, can I have some more?" kind of way.
One feature that has been requested by players ever since the original release is native iPad support for League of Evil. Today, that wish has come true. The game has been updated to be Universal, and it both looks and plays phenomenally on the larger screen of the iPad. One awesome little detail is that the game works in both landscape and portrait mode on the iPad, and I've found that I'm actually digging the portrait mode the most. It makes me feel like I'm playing a huge Game Boy, which is always a good thing.
I have a weird amount of respect for the Worms franchise because not only has it lasted for almost two decades, it has consistently been a solid, albeit unchanging experience. The problem is, I've never actually been able to really get into the games, but with Team17's Worms Crazy Golf [$2.99 / HD], it's the first new experience that takes the oddness of the franchise and converts it into something a little easier to pick up and play.
If you've ever played any of the Worms games dating back to the Amiga, you should have a good idea of what to expect with a golf game. The difference is that you're only controlling one worm instead of a battalion and your goal isn't to crush the opposing team, it's to hit a ball into a hole. The same control scheme from other Worms iOS ports comes into play here, you can slide your finger around for a better view of the course and you'll move a small aiming reticle to line up the trajectory of your shot. You'll hold a button to set the strength and whack it as far and accurately as you can.
Perhaps you've already been clued in by the "crazy" in the title, but just so we're all on the same page, this isn't a set of normal golf courses. They're essentially tricked out, massive mini-golf style puzzles, with exploding sheep, suicidal worms, cannons, magnets and more.
Dark Incursion [$1.99] had all the makings of a decent ‘Metroidvania’ title for iOS. Everything from its classically-inspired pixel graphics and music to even its overarching story created a compelling atmosphere for playing. Most importantly, Dark Incursion also did a good job of somewhat emulating the Metroidvania style of gameplay while attempting to improve upon it with its different take on equipment upgrades. However, despite all these positives, Dark Incursion’s horrendous control scheme simply ruins almost all of the fun.
Dark Incursion is a 2D side scrolling adventure game with a touch of platforming mixed into the gameplay. You play as Anya, an underground resistance fighter attempting to infiltrate a secret military laboratory. The game plays exactly like the recent 2D iterations of Castlevania or Metroid. Dark Incursion even preserves the standard ‘find power-up, backtrack to previously inaccessible area’ sort of gameplay (hence the term Metroidvania). Dark Incursion’s similarities don’t end with gameplay, as even the graphics and music are very similar to those spiritual predecessors. Even though Dark Incursion isn’t particularly original when it comes to its presentation, it still does a good job integrating a visual style that has proven to be popular in similar games.
In this week's episode of the TouchArcade Show, the regular cast and crew push through talk of PlayStation Home, the next console generation, and the impact of game streaming to bring you the latest and greatest in iOS. Prepare your earholes, folks, because we've got a huge games section this week -- which includes chat about Bike Baron, Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots, etc. -- and we also spend a ton of time getting through our e-mail backlog. I think you'll really like this one, as it's easily our loosest, but information-filled yet.
If you'd like to download our podcast, go ahead and do so via the direct links below. If you'd rather subscribe and get your new episodes the second they're released, you can do so via iTunes and the Zune Marketplace. Get to it, people!
Ah, the inevitable movie tie-in. In the tradition of Angry Birds: Rio and Doodle Jump: Hop comes Halfbrick'sFruit Ninja: Puss in Boots [$0.99 / HD]. Apparently animated films go with popular iOS properties like peanut butter and jelly.
But let's not jump to conclusions. This Fruit Ninja is no lame license cash-in. It's no replacement for the original game, but it's a great complement. As we mentioned in our preview, it introduces Bandito mode, a fantastic addition to the family of Fruit Ninja's [$0.99 / HD / Lite] game modes. And it adds a ridiculously popular feline mascot, for the folks who swoon at the idea of a swashbuckling kitty with a Spanish accent.
Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots boasts two game modes. Desperado, the first, is the classic game most of us know and love. You swipe the screen to slash fruit as they're tossed up. Let one fall unslashed and you lose one of three lives, hit a bomb and it's game over. The longer you go and better you perform, the higher you'll place on the leaderboard in the end.
Hey, guys, Soul Calibur is coming to iOS. The original Soul Calibur, that is, and not one of the new-fangled ones.
Joystiq recently caught up with a Namco Bandai at an event and received this confirmation, as well as a release window of "soon." And, well, that's it.
Soul Calibur has seen two port jobs since its release in 1998. It'll be fun to see if this one will roll out with iOS-centric controls and functionality like the Street Fighter iOS games. They seem to hit register pretty well with that series' faithful and we all know how choosey they can (rightfully sometimes) be.
One of the biggest games of the year has its own iOS companion app. Warner Bros. in collaboration with Brady Games just tossed out Batman Arkham City Map App [$2.99] for use with Batman: Arkham City. With it you'll be able to track and collect all the crazy little bits and bobs hidden around Arkham City's open-ish world. It also shows you where stuff is, which should take some of the edge off marking everything in-game.
Earlier this summer I managed to get pretty stoked about Dead Island's map app, which seems to be pretty similar to this one. I just love being able to relegate task manager-type duties to a separate device -- it frees me to hunker down and focus on the big picture by providing a slick conduit to all the side-stuff I can now choose to miss until I'm good and ready to get my collect-a-thon on.
Also, this is totally Batman. Dude would use this if he could.
Jelly Defense [$2.99], a tower defense game that absolutely crushes it on the art and production front, is apparently riding a wave of success. Creator Infinite Dreams shot us over a press release this morning noting how it's taken a couple of number one App Store chart spots across the globe, but it also tipped us off on a 'huge' update that hit the other day. The headliner is the game's new "easy" or baby mode, which gives lays off on the casual among us. Courtesy of a few mystery tweaks, Jelly Defense is now also better performing and more balanced.
I'll summon my inner Billy Mays here and mention that's not all -- users can now turn off the sound and music in the game, speed-up the waves instead of just inviting more, and enjoy the wonders of 'improved coin collecting.' Cool!
As I mentioned to Eli earlier today, just looking at Jelly Defense makes me happy. It looks sharp, it nails cute, and it's also a pretty competent tower defense game. I reviewed it this month, by the way, if you're in the market for something like this.
Late last month we posted about Semi-Secret Software's announcement that they not only were publishing Bit Blot's award winning action adventure game Aquaria, but it'd also be hitting this fall. Well, "this fall" has recently been revealed to mean "November 3rd." Anyway, this teaser trailer will tell you everything you need to know to start getting really excited for this iPad game:
Aquaria sports a 82/100 over on Metacritic as well as a 9.2/10 overall user score, so if you own either an iPad or an iPad 2 this is a game you should really be looking forward to if you're not already.
The game series that our commenters love to hate has had another substantial update hit this morning. Angry Birds Seasons [99¢ / HD] went 2.0 today, and the Halloween update marks the start of the 2012 Angry Birds season. (Don't worry, you can still access all the 2011 Seasons content too.) Like most Angry Birds updates, this one comes packed with a bunch of new levels to play through. Unlike most Angry Birds updates, this one includes a brand new bird.
Affectionally dubbed "Orange Bird," this bird massively inflates when you tap the screen. This allows you to do things like launch it and have it fall down a narrow channel in between two nearby pig forts, then tap to have it blow both down as it expands. So far it seems like a slight variant on the black bird, although I've yet to play very many of the new levels to see how the orange bird truly shines.
In addition, that little teaser video that Rovio released when they first started teasing the new bird has exploded into a full-blown animated short:
That was a pretty entertaining four minutes, wasn't it? Rovio has certainly ramped up their quality of their videos, which sort of makes that Angry Birds movie business from a while ago seem not all that far fetched.
The developers at ustwo™ have unleashed their first full-fledged entry into the gaming category on the App Store in the form of Whale Trail [99¢]. Taking the simple mechanics from the popular cave-flying genre and wrapping them up in gobs of top-notch style and presentation, Whale Trail offers an experience that is practically like nothing else currently available on the iOS platform.
We took a fairly extensive look at the ins and outs of Whale Trail during our hands-on preview from earlier this month, so be sure to give that a look for even more details. But to reiterate, Whale Trail employs cave-flying mechanics, where touching the screen causes protagonist Willow the Whale to rise into the sky, and letting go drops him down. You must use this to avoid the evil dark clouds in the sky, which will only increase in numbers the farther you travel.
By now, pretty much everybody is aware of the utter glut of dual-stick shooters that have arrived in the App Store over the past several years. I’m not saying that it’s necessarily a bad thing, as the formula does lend itself quite well to the touch screen environment. But like any genre, excessive releases can diminish the enthusiasm towards new titles. There are some truly excellent dual-stick shooters out there, and some truly awful ones, and a whole bunch of forgettable titles that fall in-between.
One of the truly excellent ones, and one that has lived a long and happy life on my iPhone since its release, is Aftermath [$1.99] from developer TwoHeads Games. This game has always seemed to kind of fly under the radar, though we did review it when it came out, but it definitely deserves some special recognition for doing several unique things that set it apart from the masses of other dual-stick shooters out there.
Halfbrick's marketing wizard and president of Halfbrick Marketing School For The Gifted And Golden-Tongued, Phil Larsen, promised us that more updates to Jetpack Joyride [$.99] were on the way. Again, the magnificent man leaves no room for disappointment. In the latest version of the game, the studio has added two new jetpacks, more costumes, and score-tracking features that'll definitely inspire some ire amongst friends if you rock at joy riding.
One of our very favorite platforming games here in the TouchArcade Mothership is 
In this week's episode of the TouchArcade Show, the regular cast and crew push through talk of PlayStation Home, the next console generation, and the impact of game streaming to bring you the latest and greatest in iOS. Prepare your earholes, folks, because we've got a huge games section this week -- which includes chat about Bike Baron, Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots, etc. -- and we also spend a ton of time getting through our e-mail backlog. I think you'll really like this one, as it's easily our loosest, but information-filled yet.
Ah, the inevitable movie tie-in. In the tradition of Angry Birds: Rio and Doodle Jump: Hop comes 
One of the biggest games of the year has its own iOS companion app. Warner Bros. in collaboration with Brady Games just tossed out Batman Arkham City Map App [$
Jelly Defense [$
The game series that our commenters love to hate has had another substantial update hit this morning. Angry Birds Seasons [
