The day is almost here, folks: game creator extraordinaire Phil Hassey's chicken-themed successor to his award-winning strategy game Galcon [$1.99] hits this November 16. Hassey shot us a kind note this morning confirming the release of Chickon and fleshing out what we know about the game. According to him it's "very much like" Galcon, but paradoxically "very different" and, as you'd assume, sillier.
As you'll see in the assets we have below, Chickon replaces Galcon's planets with nests, it's ammunition with chickens, and its enemies with, uh, robotic chickens. There's also a ton of special abilities you'll be to utilize in battle, including bombs and nuclear warheads. You'd think radioactivity and poultry don't go together, but stop by a KFC sometime. You'll learn things. Hard things.
On November 10, FDG Entertainment, makers of Beyond Ynth [$1.99 / HD] and Cover Orange [$.99 / HD], is planning to release its next big thing: a puzzle game going by the name of Blueprint 3D. That name might not be the imaginative one in the world, but it appears as though the is poised to offer a lot of amusement, if not some possible head-scratching challenge.
In a nutshell, Blueprint 3D is one a rotation-based puzzler with a natural world twist. In the game, you start out with a chaotic blueprint that you'll need to manipulate and torture until the mess of lines form a coherent picture. As its name implies, you'll be working with all the planes of reality available to mortal men, which sets this apart to some degree on a mechanical level and also introduces the possibility of some crazy puzzles. But if anything, it'll rock a lot of content: 240 levels and seven themes, including architecture, medieval, and electronics, have been confirmed to be in the release version.
Not many of these games nail their look and tone, so this this'll definitely be something we'll follow as it hits the App Store in a couple of days. Speaking of that, expect to pay $.99 on the iPhone and iPod Touch or $2.99 on the iPad.
Assassin's Creed, as far as I can tell, is about stabbing dudes and pushing down NPCs while on the way to stab more dudes. The upcoming board game for the iPad, on the other hand, is about building a beastly deck of cards and pummeling dudes into submission and taking their territories in real-time. Intrigued? We still are, even though the new details out there are still pretty vague.
IGN recently got their hands on with Assassin's Creed Recollection and are reporting that it features several mechanics from other collectible card games, but fiddles with pacing by introducing a "looping timeline" as seen in, say, Lumines. Cards apparently have the power to attack players or seize a territory, so that's how the action part of the game works, at least.
Ubisoft is still tossing out phrases like "deep tactical gameplay" and "challenging political battles" in regards to what Recollection will offers, but we're not sure how it's going to execute on these promises. We'd look to the new trailer to see what's up, but Ubisoft is still in full-blast mystery mode for its November-bound game.
Regardless of the lack of intel, this continues to be something our all-seeing eye is keyed in on. Assassin's Creed fans should definitely stay with Recollections, too, as it'll deliver collectible assets from all the games, as well as reconnect you with characters and "memories" from Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed 2.
Fantasy Flight Games is a company that's known for creating very complicated tabletop games from geek-friendly properties, like A Song of Ice and Fire, Battlestar Galactica, The Lord of the Rings, and the works of H.P. Lovecraft. One of their most popular offerings is Arkham Horror, a game with approximately 700 cards, tokens and markers to keep track of and a play time of up to four hours. Earlier this year, the company released Elder Sign, a game that takes the Lovecraftian horror of Arkham Horror and distills it down to about half the time and only 200 pieces or so.
I love these games, but there's really no such thing as a quick game of, well, any of them. Between set up, tear down and the inevitable time taken to teach new players and reference forgotten rules, you're looking at a full evening's entertainment. So imagine my delight playing Elder Sign: Omens [$3.99 / HD], the first of Fantasy Flight's more mature games to arrive on the App Store. It's quick to play, can be learned (mostly) as you go, and can be played solo or hotseat with friends. What's not to like?
It was just last week that we were singing the praises of Mika Mobile's Zombieville USA 2 [99¢] in our review and discussing it further on our latest podcast. But already, Mika Mobile has released an update to the game which fixes a few bugs, makes some adjustments, and adds a new playable character.
The first major improvement is to the control wheel. The touch radius has been increased significantly, which means that should your thumbs slide beyond the visual boundaries of the control stick circle, then you will still continue to move in the direction you are pushing. Previously, if your thumb went beyond the control stick your character would stop dead in its tracks, causing all sorts of trouble. (more...)
We spied Oh! Edo Towns [$3.99/Lite] on the App store in early September, and ever since, I've been wringing my hands in anticipation at the thought of a new Kairosoft game to fill up my free time. After all, Game Dev Story earned our coveted five-star score, and we've enjoyed the clever and cute take on the pleasures of city sims every since. Throw in my slight obsession with historical Japan, and then tell me I get to build my own town in Edo-period Japan, and here you have a very excited gamer. Can I be a shogun? Paint some ukiyo-e? Maybe even thwart Saigo Takamori before he reaches the borders of my humble town?
In all seriousness, though -- if you have ever played a Kairosoft title, you will know what to expect here. Oh! Edo Towns follows the formula of the previous games by kicking it off giving you your own plot of land to build up into something spectacular. Considering the theme, everything plays on Japan's Edo period, from the ability to build things like Public Baths and Dumpling Shops to small details such as character dress and design. If you're a fan of Japanese history, as I am, you are sure to have a soft spot for this one.
On this week's bonus episode of The TouchArcade Show, we speak with FakePup's Miguel Rafael. He and his studio just released Super Bit Dash [Free], an 8-bit runner with a few cool twists to the action model. We love the look and feel of it and, basically, and wanted to get with FakePup and see where the game was going and what the studio is all about.
Turns out that FakePup has a great story, so we're pretty pumped to share it with you via our podcast. If you'd like to give this a listen feel free to do so below via direct download or streaming. Subscribers to our podcast on iTunes and Zune get our podcasts the second they're uploaded onto the Internet, so get on those services if you want to fill your earholes with our goodness the second we release it.
We've nailed our collective pants to our chairs, but they keep flying off when we look at the first image from Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas. Finnish developer Cornfox & Bros describes it as a Zelda-'inspired' action adventure game that seeks to put the focus on puzzles and exploration instead of RPG sub-systems and menus. It's also gorgeous -- like, your-pants-will-pop-off kind of gorgeous.
The name of the game is derived from the fiction's ancient sea monster who "terrorizes" the World of Uncharted Seas. You'll play as a "nameless hero" tasked with killing this monster and saving his sister. In order to accomplish these things, you'll need to explore the world in boat and on foot, and undoubtedly plunge into some puzzle-y areas filled with treasure.
Supermono Studios is proving that its willing to go back to the drawing board with its open-world-meets-LittleBigPlanet racing game, Forever Drive [Free]. Under advisement from fans, the studio has released a free update to the game that demonstrates dramatic refinements and tweaks to the core action and building models. The game had been under some... fire from fans who believed its free-to-play business model was proving too restrictive.
The biggest change? Users can now earn more credits by racing. Before, it appeared that the only way to obtain the game's currency was to purchase them. Also, this update gives users five free track slots and the ability to edit their own tracks without the need to purchase more slots. New monorail scenery and bad track reporting functionality are in this update, too.
We've been pretty high on Forever Drive for a while now, but we're stoked to see creator Supermono flatten out some of the hillier spots in an otherwise cool title. This update is teasing "brand new modes" so look out for more in the near future.
Blade aficionados Small Ball and gaming goliath Activision have teamed up to promote the publisher's upcoming release Prototype 2 on the App Store. ProtoSlice [Free / HD] is the name of the combined effort and it's been available as a free download since earlier last week.
ProtoSlice isn't in unfamiliar creative territory for Small Ball. The game tasks users with pressing humongous buttons while avoiding and maneuvering sharp blades... which is pretty much what you do in Small Ball's other blade game, Slice [$2.99 / HD]. The catch in this one is that the blades are actually Prototype 2 protagonist James Heller's mutated hands. Heller is a viral freak, much like the series first dark hero Alex Mercer.
DanLabGames'Â DynaStunts [$2.99] places itself in a difficult spot from the start. Motocross games, trials games and even racing games are genres that are already looking well stocked on the App Store. Just in the last few months we've seen several motocross games pop up, including a few solid ones, but while DynaStunts might initially look like another trials game, it might be best to think of it as something else altogether -- a platformer.
For anyone who has played a significant amount of motocross games, this is the most evident in the control scheme. It's reversed, as in, the gas and brake are on the left, while the tilt is on the right -- like a platformer, but not like most other games of this ilk, where the tilt is usually on the left. There's no option for customization either, so if you've been playing a lot of say, Bike Baron[99¢] recently, you'll have a hard time grasping the controls. The developer has mentioned in the forums that customization is on the to-do list, along with adding Game Center achievements, but if you train your brain to think of DynaStunts like a platformer, you should get the hang of it quickly.
Big Pixel Studios, creators of the adorable physics puzzler Land-a Panda [99¢/HD/Lite HD] and the cat-tastic dual-stick shooter Meow Meow Happy Fight [$2.99/HD], have temporarily dropped the price of one of their other major titles, Piyo Blocks 2 [Free]. A sequel to the original Piyo Blocks [99¢/Lite] that was released in 2009, Piyo Blocks 2 takes everything that was great about that first game and improves upon it, resulting in one of the most enjoyable match-3 games around.
I know what you must be thinking, "A match-3? Seriously? I am like, SO over that", and normally I'd totally agree with you. Except that Piyo Blocks 2 just happens to be my personal favorite match-3 out of them all (just slightly ahead of Gemmed! [$1.99/Lite], in case you were wondering), and if you don't already own this game then downloading it while free is a mandatory action. There really isn't a more feature-rich match-3 game available on iOS.
Highline Games have released W.E.L.D.E.R. [$1.99] which stands for 'Word Examination Laboratory for Dynamic Extraction and Reassessment", The amusing game trailer (below) suggests that words are at risk of becoming extinct, but that's not really part of the gameplay. It's just more interesting than saying: "Move letters around to form words", which might sound dull and done-to-death;Â but this intriguing word game is neither of those things, it's unique and will activate your brain.
The game features an 8x8 grid which is full of letter tiles. The idea is to form words with four or more letters, by moving letter tiles around in various ways. The "Basic Swap" involves tapping any two neighboring letters (horizontally, vertically or diagonally adjoining) so they swap positions. The words must be written from left-to-right or top-to-bottom, much like a crossword puzzle. There's no time limits (thank goodness), although a certain number of words must be formed to complete each level.
If you're a 90s-era adventure game enthusiast, then you are no doubt familiar with the Monkey Island series from LucasArts. These classic games have gotten the facelift and rerelease treatment on the App Store in recent years, with the excellent Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition [$2.99/Lite/HD/Lite HD] and Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge [$2.99/Lite/HD/Lite HD]. Each of these titles retains the core gameplay of the original versions while also adding optional updated visuals and additional modern features, and are pretty essential for iOS-owning fans of the series.
But if you weren't around for the originals, then there's a good chance you know Monkey Island from the episodic series reboot that Telltale Games codeveloped with LucasArts for the WiiWare and PC in 2009, called Monkey Island Tales. We quite enjoyed the game in our review from when the first episode came to the iPad last December, and the remainder of the 5 episode collection of Monkey Island Tales was released on iOS earlier this year with equally enjoyable results.
On this week's episode of The TouchArcade Show, we powered through discussions of Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 in order to bring you best in class talk on iOS games, news, and interesting issues. At the top of the show, we dive into our real-life experiences with the iPhone 4S in the afterglow of its release. Later, we dig into Uppercut's Epoch, Zombieville USA 2, Angry Birds' record sales, and your user questions.
Lots of stuff on this week's show and we hope you enjoy it. If you'd like to listen, click on one of those links just below. If you'd like to subscribe to us and receive all our show's, including our awesome bonus editions, the second they hit the Internet, do so via the iTunes Store or Zune.
The day is almost here, folks: game creator extraordinaire Phil Hassey's chicken-themed successor to his award-winning strategy game Galcon [$1.99] hits this November 16. Hassey shot us a kind note this morning confirming the release of Chickon and fleshing out what we know about the game. According to him it's "very much like" Galcon, but paradoxically "very different" and, as you'd assume, sillier.
On November 10, 
Fantasy Flight Games
Blade aficionados 
