Needing no introduction for any iOS Action fans, the Gangstar series has been Gameloft’s answer for folks looking for the city sandbox experience popular on gaming consoles. While we enjoyedthe previous twoGangstar titles, there were outstanding issues in both games that prevented each from becoming a truly ‘must-own’ title. With Gangstar Rio: City of Saints [$6.99], Gameloft looks to up the ante in all aspects from the new location to cleaner graphics to even a new character advancement system. While Rio falters in its voice overs and the overarching story, everything else makes this the best Gangstar yet.
Gangstar Rio continues the tried and true gameplay of previous titles that closely mimics the gameplay of sandbox games like the Grand Theft Auto series. All the elements from previous games – from the mission based main story, to the large amount of collectibles, to even the side jobs attached to various vehicles – make a return. However, GangstarRio improves on its predecessors by making everything just a little bit better. For example, the Rio de Janeiro locale seems to be bigger and is a lot more unique compared to the previous locations. The entire world just feels more alive than previous titles. In addition, the developers have improved the controls by adding a few new options and tightening the existing schemes. However, I was extremely disappointed in the lack of cloud saving/syncing as that should be an essential requirement for lengthy games such as this (moreso since Rio is a universal title).
If you're familiar with mid-90s video game history, then you might remember a not-quite-released title by the name of Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. The game was an odd puzzle platforming affair starring the famous comedian magician duo, as well as a collection of mini-games that were designed for pranking your friends. Originally slated to arrive on the Sega CD in 1995, the publisher of the title went out of business that year. That effectively shelved the release for good even though it was basically in a complete state, however, the unreleased game did eventually leak out into the wild.
Easily the most notorious mini-game from Smoke and Mirrors is Desert Bus, which tasked you with driving from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada… in real time. The feat takes about 8 real world hours, and since the game can't be paused, the trip must be completed in one sitting. If you manage to accomplish this, you receive… one point. One measly point. Then, you're given the option to drive back to Tucson, which takes another 8 hours, in order to get… another point! You can keep going like this as long as you're able to, until you reach the maximum 99 point limit. Which would take about 41 actual days of non-stop virtual driving. Right, let me get right on that.
Boston-based indie developer Dejobaan Games has been pumping out unique titles for the PC and Mac since 1999. Due to the originality in their game designs, they've garnered quite a dedicated following of fans and have seen their fair share of accolades from the gaming industry at large. One of their most well known titles is 2009's AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity (or AaAaAA!!! for short, thankfully).
The gist of the gameplay in AaAaAA!!! involves base jumping from the top of a high-rise in an alternate version of Boston, and speeding towards the ground from a first-person perspective. As you're falling, you can gain points for doing crazy things like flying as close as possible to objects without hitting them, breaking through target panes of glass, hitting birds, spray painting graffiti on buildings as you whizz by, and more. We've definitely seen these first-person skydiving type of games before, but nothing really compares to the style and original ideas found in AaAaAA!!!.
On your first look at Snoopy's Street Fair [Free], you'll probably feel a warm glow of nostalgia. It might be for Charles Schulz' classic Peanuts comic strip or television specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas. But you also might be thinking of something a little more recent. Like, say Beeline Interactive's big hit, Smurfs' Village [Free].
The apps have a lot in common, you see. Both of them are fantastic at bringing back the properties we know and love. Both flawlessly emulate the look of the classics. Both are missing a few key features. And both are cripplingly tied into IAP and grinding mechanics.
Any pinball fan reading this post can be no stranger to Gameprom and their quality iOS pinball collections, Pinball HD and War Pinball, and related, standalone tables. Last summer, the studio partnered with Sony Music Entertainment to add a little rock and roll to the pinball equation in the form of Slayer Pinball Rocks HD [App Store], a fast and furious Slayer-themed table. Gameprom has recently rekindled the Sony relationship to release AC/DC Pinball Rocks HD [App Store], a standalone table that makes you want to scream out, "Angus!"
The first thing you'll notice about AC/DC Pinball Rocks is that it's a pretty ornate table, over the top in a fashion that, I think, well fits the band. Arrayed about the table are various bits of AC/DC stage memorabilia, including the Rock 'N Roll Train, Hell's Bell, the For Those About To Rock cannon, and the Highway to Hell, itself. As you work the table, AC/DC tracks, including "Thunderstruck," "Highway to Hell," and "You Shook Me All Night Long", play along with the action as pyrotechnics blast sparks across your screen. The occasional vocal quip from lead singer Brian Johnson can also be heard during gameplay.
As far as the table itself, it's quite a different experience from the fast-paced Slayer Pinbal. AC/DC Pinball Rocks features slower-paced ball action than the other rock title and notably lacks the two main bumpers typically found above a table's central set of paddles, leaving the center of the table pretty much wide open. This may seem to be the formula for a bland game of pinball at first, but after playing the game for a short while I realized I was able to be rather more strategic and precise on this table than most others. It's possible, on the AC/DC table, to aim for targets as distant as the far corners, thanks to the ball pacing and the open central area. That's really not something you can do on a more traditional table and makes for a non-typical game experience. What's more, the sides of the table are nicely busy, with elevators, lightning bumpers, and the mission-lending TNT bundle.
The main reason that the central area of the table is left open is the mini game that takes place there. There are three mini games in all, in fact. On the right side of the screen is a guitar mini-game featuring a small ball pin with paddles, while on the left is a mini-game involving the aforementioned stage cannon. The central area mini-game raises a barrier and challenges you to score in the lower portion of the table, ultimately in a mission to open the Trap Door to Hell. AC/DC Pinball Rocks is definitely more mini-game focused than any of the studio's other pinball offerings.
The game features both single- and dual-player modes and offers a variety of camera angles, just like Gameprom's other pinball titles that came before.
AC/DC Pinball Rocks HD is a fun table that definitely feels like Gameprom pinball. I won't call it my favorite of their offerings, but it's certainly worth its space on the iOS devices of any pinball fan out there.
Da Vinci Pinball Update
Another bit of news from Gameprom is a video posted a few weeks back that contains (among other previews) a brief walk-through of the incredible-looking upcoming Da Vinci Pinball table that we previewed back in August.
The Da Vinci table is expected to arrive as a DLC item for the studio's Pinball HD collection. It will be made available soon for both iOS and Mac OS X, and is one we're very anxious to get our hands on. Stay tuned for a close look.
Chair's Infinity Blade [$2.99] hit the App Store late last year and was met with nearly flawless critical reception. We couldn't help but give it five stars in our review, saying "It doesn't get much more 'must-have' than this." We then went on to name-drop Infinity Blade all over our Best iPhone Games category, listing it highly in every buyer's guide, and every other opportunity we could think of to tell people to download it.
At the iPhone 4S press event, Chair announced Infinity Blade 2, and I'm not sure it's possible for another iOS title (aside from a potential Infinity Blade 3) to have this much pre-launch hype. It's well deserved, too. The original was fantastic, and really, all Chair would have needed to do is phone in a sequel with new monsters, new equipment, and maybe even a new setting and we all would have been happy. Instead, what they've done, it take nearly every element of the original and turned it up to eleven.
One of the few criticisms people had of Infinity Blade was the oddly cyclical nature of the game, which wasn't held up by any more than a vague shell of a story involving your entire bloodline serving the single purpose of throwing themselves at the God King. Penny Arcade nailed it in a comic, and Infinity Blade was a much better experience if you didn't focus on just how silly it was that you decided to take up the sword after your father, grand father, great grandfather, great great grandfather and however many "greats" you needed to add to get back to the original knight who foolishly decided to make this your family's purpose.
Infinity Blade 2 feels like it has an actual story, and this time it's told through actual voiceovers. It picks up where the first left off, and you've got the God King's Infinity Blade in your hands, and are off to find "The Worker of Secrets" now that every deathless in the world is interested in taking the Infinity Blade from you. The initial hook involves searching for Saydhi, an information dealer. Thankfully, Saydhi seems to love duels, and offers up prizes for winning. I won't spoil more than that (and this hardly counts as spoilers since it all transpires in the first cut scene) but the way things branch out from there is substantially more interesting than the original even though you'll be doing a similar series of loops through the game.
Combat, the main draw of Infinity Blade seems to be greatly improved. Chair must have either tweaked the combat animations themselves, how the swipe input is handled, or both as it feels like you have an even more direct control link to your character. This shines even further in the new combat options which become available, allowing you to trade your shield to either dual wield or carry a massive two handed weapon.
The three fighting styles feel substantially different, and help greatly in making the game feel not quite as repetitive. With two weapons in hand, you attack much faster and blocking with your shield is replaced with being able to duck. Two handed weapons are much slower, and your defensive abilities are swapped with blocking using the actual weapon itself. It's really cool how it all works out.
The item store is back, and just like the first game you'll be trading your gold for gear at regular intervals. A new gem system allows for higher levels of customization though, and it won't take long before your equipped set of gear has all sorts of slots that you can socket gems into which can do basic things like boost stats all the way up to imbuing your items with various magical properties. If coming across gold in battles is a problem, Infinity Blade 2 offers a similar IAP purchase system to buy more gold if you want. Although, like the original, there's really no reason to and buying gold to get the best items seems to just remove any drive to actually play the game since equipment upgrades play such a big role.
Outside of fights, the gameplay is nearly identical with a world you can explore in an on-rails fashion, panning the camera around and tapping to move to the next location. Hidden items are back, encouraging you to stop to look around on every screen so you don't miss anything. You'll want to, too, because Infinity Blade 2 looks gorgeous. While you might be rewarded with items for doing it, you'll also be taking in the scenery just to marvel at the graphics your iPhone is capable of pumping out.
The rest of the game can easily be summed up with, "It's Infinity Blade, but more." There are more enemy types to fight, more visual effects, more flexibility, more customization, and they managed to do all this while removing how repetitive the original felt after blasting through the game a few times. It's everything I wanted in a sequel, and I can't wait for it to be released.
Infinity Blade 2 will be available on December 1st as a universal app for $6.99. We'll have a full review then, so stay tuned.
We've been following the various rumblings of a potential Chrono Trigger iOS release for what must be years now. It all started with a cryptic teaser page over a year ago, and recently we got some additional reassurance that it was still coming. Well, moments ago Square Enix posted some screenshots which serve as the best evidence so far that the port is actually coming. Check 'em out:
According to Squeenix, Chrono Trigger will be released "next month." I'd love to get my hopes up, but I'm cautiously optimistic given the insane number of delays that sprung up before Final Fantasy Tactics [$15.99]. Judging by the screenshots, they've at least learned from their mistakes with FF:T and are rendering all the text differently. (In case you missed it, all of the text in Tactics was horrifyingly blurry per our review.) I can't stress this enough: Cautious optimism is the name of the game here.
Recently, we mentioned that Space Tripper [$3.99] - the iOS version of Astro Tripper - has finally been released by True Axis the makers of the popular game: Jet Car Stunts [$1.99 / Free]. After being released on various other platforms over the past decade, it's finally our turn for an iOS port of this top-down arena-based shoot'em-up, which features a main campaign plus score attack and challenge modes to unlock.
Although I'm happy to recommend this game now, my initial impressions were less favorable. You see, Space Tripper offers tilt controls as the only option for movement, but strangely, it appears no auto-calibration occurs at the start of the game, so the craft was unresponsive to tilts and left sitting like a lame duck. However, after discovering the tilt calibration and tilt-sensitivity options and testing a few different configurations, the craft became very responsive, ducking and weaving around enemies.
It's a good time to be a word game fan. Every few weeks a new genre standout arrives, ready to tide you over until the next big hit. Now App Store superstar Zach Gage (Unify [$1.99/Free], Bit Pilot [99¢], Halcyon [$1.99]) has thrown his hat into the word game ring with SpellTower [$1.99] . Those of us who fit in the Venn diagram intersection of iPad owners and word game fans benefit -- SpellTower is elegant, clever and fun.
Not that it's entirely unique. We've all played any number of games that make use of SpellTower's main mechanic. Presented with a grid of letters, you spot a word and trace a path through its letters to select it. You can trace in any direction, loop diagonally back on your path, and make words of any length past two. And if that were all there was to it, this would be a yawn and a skip. But it's not.
Namco Bandai is getting into the gorging spirit of Thanksgiving Day here in the US and encouraging gamers to gorge on new games for their iOS devices with a week long Thanksgiving sale. There’s a staggering amount of games listed on sale, so surely something to pique anyone’s interest.
Personally, I’m quite partial to Pac-Man Championship Edition, Puzzle Quest 2, and Time Crisis 2nd Strike. Oh, and Splatterhouse. Yeah I said it. Sure, it takes a brutally difficult arcade game and makes it that much more difficult with the addition of virtual controls, but I’m just a sucker for nostalgia.
I noticed that not every sale seems to be active yet in the App Store as of this writing, so it’s probably a good idea to double check the pricing before blindly mashing the purchase button. If a price hasn’t dropped yet for you, just give it a bit and check back. You’ve got all the way until Monday the 28th to take advantage of these sales.
Also, prepare yourself for the likely onslaught of other Thanksgiving Day related sales during this week and into the coming weekend.
Raccoon Rising [99¢] from Romper Games is a delightful game about a sleepy raccoon trying to survive when his forest is invaded by an army of robots and their deforestation machinery. After watching the trailer (below), you might expect an endless-vertical jumping game, as it resembles NinJump [Free/HD]. But, it's actually more like a vertical platform game, because you're not constantly jumping and can find places to stop and plan your approach upwards, through the obstacles. Also, it's level based, so you're not always restarting from the very beginning.
The little raccoon's simple story is told through comic-strip cut-scenes as he journeys through four worlds, including a temple, Tanuki forest, a ship called the 'Salty Sprocket' and finally, a city. Each world features different graphics, music, enemies and obstacles, but the goal is always to progress upwards until you reach a gate, which shuts behind you.
Just a quick weekend heads-up on a title that will be arriving in 10 days that I've been eagerly waiting four long months for.
Back in July we previewed the cave-flyer / gravity game Lander Hero from Polygon Play. At the time, I called it a "charming" title, which is an odd descriptor and one I use rarely -- but it fits. So much is right about the early version that I played through, featuring just 13 test levels, that I came out smiling and wanting much more. It's just an awesome member of the genre.
Polygon Play has just let us know that Hero Lander has been approved by Apple and will be available for download on November 30th (iPad only, at least initially), at which time we will post a review to go along with it.
On this week's TouchArcade Show, we spend a good chunk of the introductory phase of the show talking about the latest and hottest ... in console games. But immediately after my Skyrim outburst and our shared Modern Warfare 3 discussion, we DO dig into iOS. Jurassic Park: The Game leads the foray. Games like Minecraft: Pocket Edition and Space Tripper, as well as news stories including Apple's decision to pull Texas Hold'Em round out the rest of one of our rocking-est podcasts yet.
If you'd like to give us a listen (and you should) hit one of the links below to stream or direct download. If you'd like to subscribe, definitely do so via iTunes or, hey, even Zune. Options, you have them!
Thunder Game Works' Trenches [99¢/Free/HD] was originally released on Christmas Eve of 2009. It had all the core components of a solid side-scrolling field battling game, though the challenge was a bit out of balance and the campaign was a little too short. Over the next year or so, Trenches received an insane amount of update love, adding new modes, additional campaign elements and length, and robust cooperative and competitive online multiplayer modes through Game Center. What started as a good core concept that lacked finesse blossomed into a feature-rich strategy game with a near-cult following.
I had expected to hear my geriatric iPhone 3GS to croon its swan song when I loaded up Minecraft: Pocket Edition [$6.99] for the first time. It didn't. To my surprise, Mojang's inaugural iOS title actually got along swimmingly with my hardware. Was it a sign of good things to come? Perhaps. Deeply pleased with this turn of events, I went ahead and generated my first world.
And that's when the disappointments started rolling through the door. To be fair, I don't blame Mojang. If anything, they've done a rather masterful job at porting their world-famous IP onto the platform. Nonetheless, there's only so much you can do around technical constraints. Regardless of how you slice, the truth of the matter is that Minecraft just doesn't work here (not yet, anyway). To paraphrase the Genie from Disney's Aladdin, phenomenal cosmic power and itty-bitty living spaces do not mix.
Needing no introduction for any iOS Action fans, the Gangstar series has been Gameloft’s answer for folks looking for the city sandbox experience popular on gaming consoles. While we enjoyed the previous two Gangstar titles, there were outstanding issues in both games that prevented each from becoming a truly ‘must-own’ title. With Gangstar Rio: City of Saints [$6.99], Gameloft looks to up the ante in all aspects from the new location to cleaner graphics to even a new character advancement system. While Rio falters in its voice overs and the overarching story, everything else makes this the best Gangstar yet.
Any pinball fan reading this post can be no stranger to 
Thunder Game Works
