Like it or not, more and more games in a wide variety of genres appear to be taking the freemium route in an effort to be more profitable. Rather than simply taking a binary stance as to the merits of freemium, I’d prefer to look at each game on a case by case basis to see if the developers manage to strike that balance of freemium elements versus playability and, most importantly, fun. Bullet Time HD [Free], the latest title from Kiloo Games, hits that balance perfectly and leaves me hoping that future developers will create freemium games like this.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Bullet Time follows John Irish, a man out to rescue his family from the mutated creatures inhabiting the land. You’ll lead John through a variety of locales that look striking and definitely give off a Borderlands sort of vibe. The game looks great and runs amazingly well on an iPhone 4S, although there was some minor slowdown on a 4th generation iPod touch.
Control-wise, Bullet Time plays like your standard dual stick shooter, with no significant positives or negatives to the standard formula. In addition, from a gameplay perspective, you’ll always have a primary mission to accomplish, but the game also throws a few side missions and secret locales at you if you’re willing to look for them. Bullet Time also features a lot of excellent ambient sounds and hard rock music that do a great job setting the tone of the game. From a presentation standpoint, Bullet Time simply rocks.
Have you ever secretly wanted to live the life of a taxonomer, pouring over the details of new species to discover their histories? No? How about blocks -- do you like to play with blocks? You might need to fall somewhere within that spectrum to really appreciate Gua-Le-Ni [$4.99], my new favorite taxonomic game. It's a rapid-fire puzzle game with a fantastical approach to the vagaries of animal kind.
From moment to moment you're tasked with the categorization of brand new animal hybrids. While you might be familiar with the dreaded CA-MEL or TI-GER, would you recognize a RAB-HOG on sight? How about a WART-DOR-PUS-STER? Anything goes in Gua-Le-Ni, and you'll need to be quick enough to go along with it.
Zombie games may not be all the rage right now with gamers, since we've been relentlessly bombarded with them over the past few years, but that might change again with Extraction: Project Outbreak [$0.99], the latest game published by Chillingo and developed by ShortRound Games. A top-down shooter with loads of unlockables, a well done control scheme, and great visuals, Extraction looks to offer something for nearly everyone, as long as you can get past a mild case of monotony in the later levels.
The world has grown bleak in Extraction. Experiments on prisoners of war and military personnel have created a viral outbreak turning everyone into a zombie-like state. As a member of a private military contractor, you’re brought in to run a variety of missions that include rescuing scientists, escorting soldiers, defending sentry technicians and simply killing zombies (don’t worry, you get to kill zombies in all the other missions as well). Also, like any good government contractor, you’re rewarded handsomely with tons of cash at the end of each successful mission, which can be used to unlock and upgrade weapons.
And the bonus is back. On this week's bonus edition of the TouchArcade show, I go solo and speak with Infinite Dreams co-founder Marek Wyszyński about the creation of Jelly Defense [$2.99], his co-studio's past and present, and how it approaches design as a whole. I really love the way this studio does its art, so that's a pretty big theme throughout.
I'm not completely solo in this one, I should note. President-in-Chief Eli Hodapp joins me for some particularly insightful intro and outro segments. As always, you can give us a listen via the links just below or subscribe to us on iTunes and Zune.
One of Skyrim's greatest strengths is its ridiculous amount of content. But that also ties into one of its biggest weaknesses: unless you're insane, you're going to have to pass on some of what the game has to offer in order to retain a measure of focus. The in-game map functionality adds to this pain since doesn't let you jot down notes or throw up readily identifiable markers for areas you'd like to go back to.
An unofficial companion app, Dragon Shout, is looking to provide just that -- and more down the road. Dragon Shout is basically a fully interactive Skyrim map that allows for annotated markers for anything, including even alchemy components. In later updates, it'll become a social hub, of sorts, for Skyrim adventurers, as it'll add in marker sharing, party or app-wide chats, pictures, and more. It's an ambitious project.
To be clear, here's what's in the first release, which has just been submitted to Apple.
"The first version of the app contains an interactive map where you can drop annotated markers / journal entries down," the developer told us. "For example, yesterday I played Skyrim and left a bunch of dragon scales and bones on the side of a mountain because they were too heavy.
I will come back and get them some other time so I marked it on the map so I know where it's at in the future. Another example is I'm always looking for the right ingredients for potions, so when I come across an important ingredient, I mark it on the map so I know where to get it next time."
Dragon Shout should be out within the next couple of days on iPhone and iPad for $0. You can follow its progress on the app's website or this handy-dandy forum thread the creator started.
Scribblenauts developer 5th Cell isn't one-and-done with iOS. In a recent interview with Game Informer digital, studio CEO and creative director Jeremiah Slaczka said 5th Cell has several games in the pipeline, one of which is an unannounced iOS game set for release within the next month or so.
Slaczka was understandably light on details, but he did describe the game as "completely new." As vague as that is, it seems important to note, as it implies that 5th Cell's next go at the App Store won't be something like, say, Scribblenauts Remix [$4.99], which had a lot of recycled content from previously released games in the series. We've contacted 5th Cell for a few more details.
If you don't own an iPad 2 and you're about to skim past this post, let me interrupt you for a second. You can play most of Rebuild [$2.99] right now for free, as the Flash game Rebuild 2. And you really should. While the iPad 2 version comes with a few extra bells and whistles and plays gorgeously on a touch screen, this is a game that everyone should play whether they have the newest, shiniest gadget or not. Just be prepared to lose a few hours of your life to it when you do.
I don't wave around non-words like "unputdownable" often, but Rebuild deserves it. Though it's not an especially deep strategy game, it has the perfect mix of exploration, danger and difficulty to hook anyone for at least an hour or two, and maybe much longer. And yes, yes, we're up to our necks in zombie games, but this is a zombie/strategy/city builder and that's not something you see every day.
Bethesda's latest Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim, is packed with a gee-whiz level of content that extends beyond basic RPG trimmings like swords, dungeons, and towns. It has its own history and fiction, most of which is recorded in dozens and dozens of books. We're huge fans of this specific element, as we think it really fleshes out the world, but there's a slight problem with the delivery method. Who has time to read books when they could be plundering a tomb or assassinating a political figures?
Here's an awesome solution: Capane.us has apparently cut and compiled all the game's books into ePub (and Kindle) format. With this file, we can read Skyrim's books safely out of the game and on iPads wherever we want. Heck, it even has a table of contents, which makes book browsing a breeze.
We're attempting to touch base with Bethesda to see if it's OK with this effort. Even if though it's not official, this is definitely a neat way to integrate Skyrim's world and a portion of the user experience onto iPad. We'd like to see more of this companion-y type of stuff in the future, for sure.
Paul & Percy [$2.99] is a great little platform-based puzzle game for the iPad, released by Danish developers Kipper Digital. When they discover someone has stolen their butter biscuits (or "cookies", if you're American), Paul and Percy set-off on a mission to recover their delicious snacks. The two main characters look identical, so perhaps they're twins. Otherwise, they're just two dudes who live together, dress alike and share butter biscuits.
The interesting thing about this game is that the screen is split down the middle, with Paul on one side and Percy on the other. It's like taking two platform games, turning them sideways and then placing them against each other. Each character has their own separate platform level to walk around. But, they can stomp on certain brown blocks to push them through to the other character's side. So, when Paul stomps on a block, it becomes a step for Percy (and vice versa). By helping each other, they can both reach their teleportation portal and escape the level.
Tower defense games are a dime a dozen these days and Wild Defense [99¢/$1.99], in spite of its zesty-fresh tropical flavor, doesn't bring anything really new to the table. Still, that doesn't stop it being a moderately entertaining affair. Less a game for the casual enthusiast and more for the hardcore fan, this one is for those who just have to have another tower defense game on their phones.
Functionality-wise, Wild Defense will be rather cut and dry for tower defense aficionados. Your objective is a simple one: protect your fortress from the enemy waves. To accomplish this, you'll have to drag and drop your units onto strategic locations in the map, all the while trying to maintain a proper composition of troops to ensure that you can deal with the various enemy types. In addition, you'll also have to do things like purchase weapons for your army, work with bombs, cast spells, defeat bosses and occasionally play the Wild Defense equivalent of Russian Roulette.
No one can deny that the advent of Angry Birds made a permanent change to the way people saw iOS gaming. Since its debut in December 2009, the simple bird-launching game has made approximately 27 boatloads of money, and continues to rake it in with merchandise sales such as plushies and more. Naturally, other designers were bound to try to imitate the formula and appeal to the gamers who were hopelessly addicted to hurling birds at pigs. And with that, clones were born.
Snappy Dragons [99¢/Lite/HD/Lite HD] is an Angry Birds clone, through and through. But I have to clarify, because at this point in the post-Angry Birds landscape, there are many different categories of clones, so it's essential to explain what exactly you're getting into. Well, aside from throwing stuff at other stuff.
Today I saved the citizens of Metropolis from a missile launched from an unknown location. I flew into the sky and intercepted it in midair, then beat it to pieces. It exploded harmlessly over the city. But no time to wait for thanks -- a car full of criminals was escaping down the stretch of road in front of the Daily Planet. I handled them with my laser vision, if you know what I mean. Then that dastardly Lex Luthor unleashed a bunch of sticky bombs in the city. While I was gathering those up, fires started up on a nearby building. Then the meteors fell.
But hey, Superman [$0.99 / HD] can handle all that. All in a day's work, as they say. It's just too bad he couldn't be doing it in a better game. One that plays a bit less like The Hero, by Traplight Games, perhaps?
It's not that Superman is a total knock-off of The Hero. The Hero has style, charm and humor, and Superman has laser eyes, optional retina assets and the ability to beat up missiles while riding them. But the similarities are abundant.
If you've had your eye on the Think Geek iCade either for you or as a gift for someone else this holiday season, Think Geek's Black Friday sale should make that purchasing decision a little easier. For a limited time, the iCade will be available for $59.99, down from the original price of $99.99.
If you're new to the whole iCade thing, you can find absolutely everything you'd ever want to know about the device by heading on over to our iCade page. You'll find closer looks at the iCade, as well as an exhaustive list of supported games, any associated reviews, and any iCade angle articles.
The Black Friday sale, somewhat obviously, only lasts for the day. It's also worth considering that there was a time when iCades were in fairly short supply, so it's hard to say just how many Think Geek has laying around for sixty bones. I don't really see them getting much cheaper than this anytime soon either.
Hey guys! It's Thanksgiving, and being a holiday that means exactly one thing for iOS gamers: Absolutely massive price drops everywhere. The best part about this is that all of these sales seem to be in effect worldwide, so even if you don't get to partake in the tradition of gorging yourself on turkey, you can still partake in buying games on the cheap.
This week was (somewhat predictably) incredibly slow both for newly released games and overall iOS news. All you really need to do to get caught up is check out our Infinity Blade 2 preview, and be aware of The Desert Bus Child's Play charity drive. In other news, Apple did some supreme waffling with subscription-based gaming on the App Store. Allowing the first game then pulling the plug quite literally the next day. That's too bad, too, as giving developers more flexibility on how they can sell their games is never a bad thing.
Oh also, Imangi Studios' Temple Run [Free] is available again after some approval process drama. They managed to work with Apple to get it back online and slide in a new update. There's better Game Center integration, two new playable characters, six new achievements, three unlockable wallpapers and even iCade support. If you haven't grabbed it yet, get on it.
That's about it! I'm not sure much will be happening around here on Black Friday, so if there aren't any new iOS developments we'll see you guys on Monday!
Just yesterday, a report surfaced regarding Big Fish Games' plans to launch a subscription-based gaming service on the iPad. For a monthly fee initially set at $4.99, the service would allow users to access a number of Big Fish-distributed games through a dedicated app.
The app had actually been available since last week, although new subscriptions had been disabled ahead of the official launch due to high demand, according to the developer. But with the Bloomberg report from yesterday and a press release from Big Fish Games this morning, the new service appeared to be up and running.
The offering did not last long, however, as Apple quickly pulled the app following the official launch. According to a new report from Bloomberg, Big Fish Games claims to be in the dark about Apple's reasons for removing the app.
[Big Fish Games founder Paul] Thelen said he was surprised by the move because Big Fish had worked with Apple for several weeks to ensure that it met the requirements for recurring monthly charges made through the App Store, a method most commonly used by magazines and newspaper publishers.
“It was officially approved,” Thelen said. Apple had even seen the app's press release before it went out earlier today, he said.
Apple declined to comment to Bloomberg on the app's removal and has not yet responded to Big Fish's requests for explanation, leaving questions about whether Apple will indeed allow subscription-based gaming services on the App Store and about how to reconcile the app's removal with Big Fish Games' claims that it worked rather closely with Apple to ensure the approval of the app.
Like it or not, more and more games in a wide variety of genres appear to be taking the freemium route in an effort to be more profitable. Rather than simply taking a binary stance as to the merits of freemium, I’d prefer to look at each game on a case by case basis to see if the developers manage to strike that balance of freemium elements versus playability and, most importantly, fun. Bullet Time HD [Free], the latest title from Kiloo Games, hits that balance perfectly and leaves me hoping that future developers will create freemium games like this.
Just yesterday, 
